Guess What? I'm Not a Robot
by TheShapeshifter100
Summary: (OC based) Megan is a student at the University of Detroit. She lives alone and likes it that way. Her elderly neighbours decide to intervene and give her their old PL600 android; Paul. Meanwhile, a fellow student is planning a new college society bent on changing the world. Follow them through the events of Markus's revolution, and see if they can survive it.
1. Chapter 1

**Here we are! With a new story, in a new fandom! This will be based off of the good ending, mostly from Jacksepticeye's playthrough with one change. I will try and leave other paths at the end of each chapter. I think that's all, let's rock and roll!**

* * *

 **09.15AM Monday 18th October 2038**

"Megan? Are you in dear?"

A muffled voice came in through the front door, de-railing Megan's train of thought completely. She recognised the voice coming through the door; it belonged to an elderly woman who lived across the hall in a much bigger apartment.

She got up from her desk, giving her legs a bit of a shake to relieve cramp. Why were the best writing positions hell to get up from?

"Coming!" she called over to the door as she dodged teetering piles of reference material stacked around her chair. It was a mix of old books and tablets with references that couldn't be found in the US. On the way through one pile began to teeter and Megan had to pause to make sure it didn't fall over.

She finally made it to the door and unlocked it, opening it partway to hide the mess in her apartment. What she couldn't hide was the fact that she was still in cheesy, smiley face pyjamas and probably looked more tired than she felt.

"Hi, Mrs and Mrs Beckwith," Megan greeted the older couple. It was a surprise to see the two of them together these days. Both of them had trouble getting around and the oldest could barely leave the apartment. The elder was confined to a wheelchair while the younger stood next to her. Both wore shawls and thick skirts and tights against the cold.

Behind the elder, holding the wheelchairs handles, was their android, a PL600 model with the name 'Paul' on the uniform. They were seen more often than the Beckwiths, often moving laundry to and from the apartment or running errands.

"Megan, are you well?" asked the younger of the married couple, her hair held in place in a neat bun, "you're looking a little peaky."

"You say that every time you see me," Megan tried not to sigh. "I'm just pale."

"Of course dear," Mrs Beckwith smiled in that annoying, knowing way that only gentle old people have. She might as well have said 'We both know you're not being completely honest but neither of us are going to say anything.'

"Anyway," the older croaked, reminding the younger why they were here. She generally looked a good ten years older, even if she probably wasn't. Her hair hung loose and slightly scraggly over her shoulders.

"Oh yes, Megan, you don't have an android, do you?" the younger got back to her original point.

"No, I do not," Megan sighed once again, suppressing a groan. "Haven't really got the space."

"Nonsense!" declared the younger Mrs Beckwith. "Anyway, given, well, less than favourable circumstances..."

"She's catching up to me," the elder half croaked, half cackled, earning an irritated look from her spouse.

"Yes, we're having to upgrade to a new android."

Movement caught Megan's eye as their android, Paul, she had to remind herself, turned to look at the younger Mrs Beckwith, LED blinking yellow for a second. Her attention was stolen once again as Mrs Beckwith continued speaking.

"And we figured that we didn't want dear old Paul being sent to someone we don't know, or worse scrapped, so we thought you'd get some use out of him. You must be so lonely all by yourself in your apartment."

Megan blinked for a second, trying to wrap her head around exactly what was happening. This was hardly like giving away disused pots and pans or old books, as they were known to do. This was an android, something that could go for up $9000 and who knows how much repairs cost. She couldn't afford this!

"Er, th-thanks for the offer, but I can't accept," Megan tried to close the close as gently as possible on the couple, but they weren't having any of it.

"Undamaged, and an older model, so repair and parts are cheap," Mrs Beckwith wheedled. "More time for you to study."

Megan wanted to sink into the floor, but she could see there was no swaying the pair.

"Okay, okay," Megan swung the door open a little wider, revealing more of the mess that reigned supreme in her apartment.

If possible, Paul's eyes widened at the clutter and they marched in, almost pushing straight past Megan.

"Sorry, he's used to our apartment, where there's, not as much mess," Mrs Beckwith said kindly, but Megan was already charging in after Paul.

"Please leave the piles of books. They _are_ organised," Megan ran her hand through her already tousled red hair as Paul moved to the various food wrappers scattered around. This was beyond embarrassing.

"We'll leave you two to it," Mrs Beckwith had that smile again as she shut the door, leaving Megan alone with Paul.

"Okay, erm..." Megan trailed off. You had to order androids, right? It seemed odd, they looked so human; how could you order them around like they were nothing? "Er, stop cleaning, please."

Paul did as she asked, standing straight up. Their eyes still flicked around, scanning the mess, and Megan agreed that it probably did look bad.

There were pizza boxes and general food wrappers on her desk next to her computer, even on top of the lesser used book piles. There was an overflowing basket of laundry that she'd been meaning to take to the laundry room downstairs for days, and never got around to it. The same argument could be made for the washing up, which piled up in and around the sink in the combined kitchen/living area.

The tv, coffee table and couch were covered in a film of dust from lack of use, and the carpet was in dire need of a vacuum. She didn't even want to show him the bathroom and bedroom yet.

She looked over at Paul. She could get him to clean this up. That was what he was designed to do, but what was she supposed to do while he did that? Get back to work?

Well, she could, but it would be way too awkward with essentially a stranger cleaning up after her.

"Okay, um. How about you take the laundry downstairs, and I'll..." she trailed off as Paul moved towards the basket of dirty clothes.

"Which detergent do you use?" they, no, they was too weird, he, asked, speaking for the first time.

"Er, it should be in the kitchen, give me a sec," Megan moved before Paul could, checking where she knew the detergent would be. Then she was reminded of one of the reasons why she hadn't done her laundry in a while. "Don't bother, there's none left."

"I can order some," Paul offered, his voice calm and measured, but surprisingly pleasant. Not that Megan had really known what to expect. "I just need the brand name and your bank details."

"Er, maybe not now," that may have been a little overly cautious, but she didn't want that kind of information in an android's database. She'd do her own online shopping. "There's washing up liquid, so maybe tackle that first, and I'll..." once again, she trailed off as Paul moved to the sink.

He quickly and expertly got to work as Megan hovered, feeling like she should help in some way. This was _her_ apartment after all.

"I will take care of this," Paul assured, but Megan didn't feel particularly reassured. After another few minutes of uncertain hovering she went over to her computer, set a music playlist going and starting picking up the trash.

Paul looked over. "You do not need to assist. This is what I am here for."

"Well, er," Megan fumbled for a response, but didn't stop flattening pizza boxes. "There's a lot and two people would get it done quicker."

Paul tilted his head for a moment before going back to his task, the logic having apparently satisfied him.

 _Alright, using logic to pacify the robot. Sounds about right, not bad._ Megan calmed herself down, busying herself with collecting the trash.

There was a surprising amount of it, even to her, and she was the one who put it there. She did have to pass Paul to grab a bin bag to put it all in, but he didn't seem to acknowledge her.

There wasn't enough space on the drying rack for all of the dishes, so Paul had just started drying as Megan braced herself to go and take the trash out. The last thing she wanted was for someone to make small talk by the dumpsters, or worse, in the stairwell.

Thankfully no one was about, and she quickly discovered why. It was still early in the morning and bitterly cold.

She rushed back upstairs to find that Paul had finished drying, and was searching the cupboards for where to put the dishes back. The cupboards were mostly empty, given that up until recently, the contents had been waiting to be cleaned.

"Er," Megan paused as Paul looked at her, clearly expecting to be told where to put stuff. "I-I don't have a system. Put them where you think they should go."

It was a lie, and she wasn't sure if he'd worked that out as there was a slight pause from the android. "Understood."

He took a step back from the cupboards, scanning for less than a second as his LED turned from blue to yellow and back again. Scan apparently complete he began putting everything away much more quickly than Megan ever could. That was a relief.

Looking around for what to do next, Megan glanced at her computer, wondering whether it was worth getting back to work yet. Nope, he was still here, still cleaning her apartment and it was still awkward.

Megan grabbed her books piles one by one and placed them on the coffee table so she could activate the criminally underused Roomba. She noticed that it was also covered in a film of dust as it sputtered into life, but it didn't seem to care as it puttered around the apartment doing its thing.

Paul had finished with the dishes, so moved from the kitchen and pulled open the curtains, making Megan turn away from the sudden brightness. Making matters worse he opened the window, letting in freezing cold air and the noise of Detroit.

"Can you please close the window?" Megan asked. "It's freezing!"

"This apartment is significantly above freezing," Paul intoned but closed the window as she'd asked, "and fresh air makes the room smell better."

"Is that what the Beckwith's told you?" Megan muttered, which Paul seemed to pick up on.

"Yes, although they would often disagree upon the temperature."

"I can imagine," Megan agreed, before starting when Paul moved again. "Where are you going?"

"While your apartment is smaller than Mrs Beckwith and Mrs Beckwith's, there should still be a bedroom and a bathroom. Most likely they would need cleaning."

 _Who knew androids could have sass._

"O-okay. You do the bathroom, I'll do the bedroom."

"I can do both."

"I'm sure you can, but I'd prefer that you didn't go in my bedroom," Megan was slowly growing confident around him. Although, that rule went for anyone who came into her apartment, not that it happened often. Or at all.

"Understood. Are there sufficient cleaning supplies?"

"I-I don't know, but I hear vinegar is a good substitute."

Paul looked at her, as if dearly tempted to sigh in frustration. "I will see what there is," he disappeared into the bathroom and Megan put her head in her hands. He'd been here less than an hour and she'd already had enough. She wanted her peace and quiet back!

* * *

 **Other options:**

 **Choose not to help Paul tidy up**

 **Allow Paul in Megan's room**

 **A few dialogue options that I can't think of right now**

 **This is not a poll! All the chapters have been written out! Although if anyone has any other ideas on for alternative options, please let me, and if I like them, I'll include them with credit of course.**


	2. Chapter 2

**09.35AM Monday 18** **th** **October 2038**

Megan went into her bedroom and had a look around. Honestly, it wasn't as bad as the main living space. Okay, there was a pile of dirty laundry that hadn't yet made it to the basket and she really wasn't sure when she had last changed her sheets. Other than that, and the slightly funky smell, it wasn't bad.

She took a leaf from Paul's book and opened the curtains, then, despite her better judgement, opened the window. Still freezing, still noisy, but the room might smell a bit better.

It was a cheap apartment, but it still had a decent view. She was on the outskirts of the city centre, within fairly easy reach of the university. Below she could see people and androids leaving for work or shopping, or whatever they were doing. She wasn't high up enough for them to ants, more like cockroaches skittering from one place to another.

From there she stripped the bed and rummaged around in the closet for fresh bedclothes, which she did have. Once on she added the dirty stuff to the pile, which she debated moving to the basket or not.

On second thoughts, it might make the basket overflow too much, better leave it here.

After a minute or so of thought, she tidied up her bedside table, removing tissues and clearing out the hair brush.

Feeling a level of satisfaction she left the room, and peeked into the bathroom to see how Paul was getting on.

In the short time she had taken to straighten out her room, Paul had transformed the bathroom. There was a slight smell of vinegar in the air, suggested that he had had to use it as a surface cleaner. Said surfaces gleamed white, including the toilet, which Paul was in the process of scrubbing.

He didn't seem to notice her, so she carefully left, leaving the door ajar.

She went back over to her computer and set up a new document, title 'shopping list'. Top of the list went laundry detergent and surface cleaner. She really did need food, but given the cheapness of takeouts (delivery drivers were androids now, and didn't need wages) she didn't see it as a high priority.

The Roomba scooted back to its dock, job done as Megan looked over at the bathroom. She should really ask him what cleaning supplies she, they, needed, since he was more likely to know. After a few seconds of lingering, she decided to wait until he was done before asking.

It didn't take long for him to re-appear, carrying the bathroom trash can as he did. He left the apartment without a word, and Megan felt herself relax. She knew he wouldn't be gone long, but just having the apartment to herself for a short time was a relief.

Sadly, he was back quickly, and once the small plastic trash can was back in the bathroom, he went over to Megan.

"Is there anything else you require me to do?"

"Er, y-yeah. Hold on," she'd pulled up one of her forum sites while he was gone, so had to quickly find the shopping list document. She really needed to close some text documents.

"Okay, other than detergent and surface cleaner, do you know what other cleaning stuff I need?"

"I would highly recommend limescale remover," Paul answered after a short pause, "a specific kitchen surface cleaner and oven cleaner."

"Okay," Megan typed it out. "Anything else?"

"That is all for cleaning supplies."

Megan felt like Paul was narrowing his eyes behind her, although she didn't turn to be sure. "I can order those for you."

"Don't worry about it," Megan half muttered. "I'm used to doing it myself."

There was a pause as Megan went to the grocery store website, but paused when she heard Paul move. She looked over to see him going over into the kitchen, specifically the fridge.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

"Making breakfast. It is 09.47 and it appears that you have not eaten," Paul opened the fridge and Megan waited for what he was going to say next.

"May I suggest adding food staples to the shopping list?" he asked, upon seeing the barren fridge.

"It's fine. I'm not hungry anyway," Megan went back to ordering the cleaning supplies.

Paul said nothing, closing the fridge and walking back over to Megan.

"Is there anything else you wish me to do?"

Megan froze, racking her brains for anything that might need doing, but nothing was coming up.

"Uh, no, not really," she half mumbled.

"I, see," if a robot could sound uncertain, Paul managed it. "Do you have any plans for today? Should I go shopping for food for lunch or your evening meal? Shall I go and collect your order once it's ready? Shall I dust or do you have a dust allergy?"

"Please stop asking questions!" Megan cried, a little louder than she had intended. She hadn't realised it but her whole body had gone tense and her breathing had gotten faster.

"I'm sorry," Paul said after a pause. "I'm just trying to find the best way to assist you."

"I know, I'm, I'm sorry," Megan shrank in on herself, pulling her knees into her chest as she stared at the screen. Now that he wasn't talking, she could focus on what he had asked.

"I don't have any plans other than staying in, studying and working. Don't worry about food, I'll order takeout. If I order shopping I usually get it delivered. You can dust if you really want, I don't have an allergy," she finished.

"Understood," Paul intoned. "Does the order come to the door?"

"No. I usually have to go downstairs."

"Shall I fetch it when it arrives?"

"If you want, sure," Megan's breathing had calmed down.

"... I'm sorry for alarming you."

"Don't worry about it. I guess the Beckwiths had you running around doing stuff all the time?"

"Yes, they always had something for me to do," Paul agreed.

"Well, you'll get plenty of downtime with me," Megan tried to joke, but it clearly fell flat.

The two fell into silence as the order went through and Megan went back to studying. Paul dusted quickly and once he was done hovered behind her, seemingly unsure of what to do. It was distracting.

"Why don't you, read a book, or something, while you wait?" Megan asked, gesturing to the shelves by the wall.

Paul looked over and went to the wall, selecting a book at random and skimming through it. With that method he was done in a few minutes, and he went back over to Megan.

"I have read a book."

Megan paused and looked over at him. "Already?"

Paul nodded, blonde hair bouncing slightly.

"Er, maybe read another one, but, take your time this time. Don't just skim through."

"Okay," Paul did what Megan asked, and she watched him this time as he selected another book and started reading it a more normal pace. Standing up.

"You can sit down if you want."

Still reading Paul sat on the couch, upper body not changing position.

A little unnerved, Megan got back to work. She almost forgot he was there until she got the alert that her order had arrived.

She stood up and stretched, yawning at the same time. Glancing at the clock told her that it was later in the day, so she was less likely to bump into anyone on the way downstairs.

Before she could move, Paul put the book down and fluidly stood up, making her jump out of her skin.

"Your order has arrived," he said, before looking at Megan. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," Megan half squeaked, getting her breath back. "I forgot you were there."

"I'm sorry for startling you. I'll retrieve your order."

"You do that," Megan breathed, and Paul left.

She slumped back into her chair and yawned, looking at her assignment. It was due in a few days and she'd been alternating between that and some commissioned work to get them both done in time. She considered sleep, as she'd been going all night, but she was so close to finishing this section, maybe she could keep going.

Paul came back in and quickly started putting away the cleaning supplies. Since Megan was back into the groove of her work, Paul took the laundry downstairs without her even noticing.

She only realised when she finished her section, like she had promised herself, and looked around to see the nearly overflowing laundry basket had gone. After a brief moment of panic, she realised that Paul must have sorted that out now that they had detergent.

She yawned again and glanced at the clock. Around lunch time, ish. There were probably some biscuits or something in one of the cupboards that she should probably eat, but she didn't feel all that hungry.

She saved her work and went into her bedroom. She hadn't realised how much it had smelled until the smell was gone, but it was now definitely freezing here. With a shiver she shut the window and closed the curtains.

She considered changing into something resembling pyjamas, but then she remembered that she was already wearing them. Had she gotten changed at all since yesterday morning? She found that she didn't remember, or particularly care.

So, at half one in the afternoon, Megan went to bed.

* * *

 **Other Options**

 **Suggest Paul watch tv**

 **Really, that's it. Last chapter's 'Allow/don't allow Paul in Megan's bedroom' comes into play here, as if you had let Paul in, Megan would have gone back to work instead. Her bedroom would be in the same state, but it would be Paul doing those things.**


	3. Chapter 3

**6.30PM Monday 18** **th** **October 2038**

Megan woke up an unknown amount of time to steady knocking on her bedroom door.

"Megan? Are you awake? It is currently 18.30 and I was wondering if you'd like something to eat?"

It took Megan a few seconds to register that it was Paul. If he was right about the time, then she must have gotten about five hours sleep. Not bad.

"I'm awake, I'm coming," she half groaned, loud enough for him to hear. She half considered lying there for a while, but knowing that someone was waiting for her motivated her to get up.

She shuffled towards the door and opened it, revealing that Paul was holding a tablet with a takeout menu on it.

"Since we are out of food I took the liberty of compiling menus from the nearest restaurants with takeaway options," he held the tablet out to her Megan and she took it, still blinking sleep from her eyes.

"Thanks, Paul. Give me a minute," Megan left the room and slumped down on the couch, flicking through the menus sluggishly. She wasn't really in the mood for anything, but Paul was watching her.

She decided on something small and got up to the order from her computer.

"I can call them, if you would," Paul offered.

"No thanks Paul," Megan yawned." I would still have to pay them when they get here, and I'd sooner not worry about it."

"Understood," Paul fell silent, and Megan suddenly felt more awake as he realised that her reference piles had all been moved back to their original positions.

"Did you move the book piles?"

"Yes. I took great care to keep them in the same order."

Megan looked over at Paul, was it her, or was he smiling slightly? "Thanks, you didn't have to do that."

"I have also folded your laundry, although since you have asked me not to enter your room, I have left the basket by the door."

"Thanks," Megan paused for a moment before sitting at her computer to order food. She felt like she should say more, but wasn't sure what to add.

Paul seemed to be in similar situation. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yep."

"Would you like me to collect your order once it arrives?"

"Sure," Megan yawned.

"It appears you have not had sufficient sleep, but sleeping now will impair a decent night's sleep."

"I don't have class until tomorrow afternoon, and my sleep schedule is already messed up."

"That, that is not healthy."

Megan didn't respond, merely paying for her order.

"I'm going to go back to bed," she half mumbled, standing up.

"I will wake you when your order arrives."

"Okay," she yawned and shuffled back to her room, leaving Paul alone in the apartment.

* * *

 **8AM Tuesday 19** **th** **October 2038**

Megan woke up to sunlight filtering through the curtains and groaned, rolling over to check her alarm clock. It was 8AM, why was it 8AM?

She jumped as someone knocked on her bedroom door.

"Megan, are you awake?" It was Paul. It took a second for her to remember why he was there.

"I'm awake!" she confirmed, getting up. The knocking stopped and she walked out of her bedroom. Her memory kicked into gear as she watched Paul take something out of the microwave.

"I, I thought you were going to wake me up when the takeout arrived."

"I attempted to, but you did not answer. Given that you admitted that your sleep pattern was unhealthy, I thought it best to let you sleep," Paul's LED blinked yellow for a moment. "Was that okay?"

"Uh, yeah, thanks," Megan had to admit, she hadn't slept that well in a while.

Her eyebrows scrunched into a slight frown as Paul dolloped what she recognised as what she ordered last night onto a plate. Sweet and sour pork, if she remembered correctly. Even re-heated, it smelt good, and her stomach finally made it's grievances known. She was starving!

"It is hardly the most nutritious breakfast, but it's better than nothing," Paul admitted as Megan sat down and began eating. "I suggest food shopping as soon as possible."

Megan made some strange grunt of half agreement as she inhaled the food, barely tasting it.

"There are various grocery stores nearby. Since you said your class does not start until this afternoon, perhaps we should visit them before you leave?"

Megan paused and looked over at Paul, who was filling a glass of water at the sink.

"I can just order it," she got out as she swallowed her food.

"If I am correct, you have barely left the apartment in 24 hours. That is not healthy."

"Well, according to you, nothing I do is healthy," Megan paused for a second, fork halfway to her mouth as she realised something. "Were you waiting for me to wake up all night?"

"More or less," Paul responded.

"You, you didn't sleep at all?"

"I am an android; I do not need to sleep."

"Weren't you bored?"

"I am an android," there was a small amount of humour in the tone.

"You're an android, so you don't get bored, I get it," Megan shifted uncomfortably, suddenly not hungry. "Still..."

No one said anything, so Megan pushed her plate away slightly before standing up.

"Are you not going to finish your meal?"

"I'm, I'm not hungry," Megan mumbled. "Maybe ordering some food will get me hungry again. What do you suggest?" she asked, sitting down at her computer.

Paul didn't answer immediately, walking over to Megan's computer to see the shopping list document had been pulled up again.

"Milk, eggs, flour, bread, pasta, a variety of vegetables, tinned soup, tinned tomatoes," Paul paused for a moment, and Megan took the opportunity to interject.

"Alright, that should be good for now," she went to her usual online shopping website to look through for what Paul had suggested.

"It would be a lot quicker if I ordered them, and more beneficial if we went to a physical grocery store."

Megan's shoulders tensed, but she kept scrolling through the website.

The two suffered uncomfortable silence until Paul decided to break it.

"Does my presence make you uncomfortable?"

Megan didn't answer immediately. She didn't _want_ to answer.

"...Did you hear what I said?" Paul asked patiently and Megan struggled to keep her voice neutral.

"Yes, I heard you."

"Do you not wish to answer?"

"...You won't like the answer," she mumbled, but Paul still heard.

"I see."

The two remained in silence, even when the food order arrived. Paul just silently went to get it.

* * *

 **As you may have guessed by now, this is not like my other stories, this is much more relationship focused. Action will be happening, especially as the Markus's story from the game kicks into high gear, but for now, it's a bit smaller.**

 **Other Options 'Flowchart'**

 **Order Italian, Thai, Indian, Japanese, or burger**

 **Dialogue options that affect relationship. Answer Paul's question: Truth- Yes you make me uncomfortable. Lie- No, you don't make me uncomfortable.**

 **NOT A POLL This is basically the flowchart you see at the end of each chapter of the game.**


	4. Chapter 4

**10AM Tuesday 19** **th** **October 2038**

Once the door shut Megan leaned back in her chair and sighed, letting the tension bleed from her body. She could finally think.

Paul didn't make her completely uncomfortable. She just wasn't used to someone in the apartment. It was just when he kept trying to help like that. She knew he was right, her lifestyle was unhealthy, it would be easier for him to just order stuff for her. If she had to pin it down, she didn't like the change. She had how she did things, and she didn't like being reminded that her lifestyle wasn't good.

It wasn't his business how she lived her life! Except, it was now, because the grandparents of the building had decided to shove them together, and she could hardly get rid of him. The Beckwith's would ask and people could be so horrible to androids. She hadn't been great, but she wasn't hurting him.

Her train of thought was broken when he came back in, and wordlessly began to unpack the shopping.

She turned to face him in the chair, trying to figure out how to salvage this.

"Did the Beckwith's tell you that they were replacing you?" that was not the question she had intended, but too late. She had to roll with it now.

Paul paused, his LED blinking yellow for a couple of seconds.

"No. They did not. I knew they were getting another android, but they did not mention that they were giving me to you."

"Looks like we got stuck with each other then," Megan attempted a smile, but it didn't quite work.

"You could return me to a CyberLife store, where I could be resold."

"I could," Megan agreed. "But that would mean going outside, and I think you can guess my thoughts on that."

Paul looked over at her, LED still blinking yellow as he processed.

"Was, was that a joke?"

"It was an attempt. I'm not very good at them," Megan admitted. "I'm sorry about earlier. I'm just, resistant to change, I guess," her gaze had drifted downwards, so she didn't see his LED flip between yellow and blue.

"...What time is your class?"

"What?" Megan looked up, confused at the sudden change in subject.

"What time is your class?"

"Er, two. I usually get the bus."

"And, what time would you be back?"

"Um seven, ish? I've got a society meeting tonight, but I don't plan on staying long."

"Okay," Paul continued unpacking the groceries. "I will have dinner ready when you return. Would you like lunch before you leave?"

Megan blinked as Paul waited for her response. "I, I guess. That sounds like a good idea."

Paul nodded, and he got back to putting the food away, leaving Megan a little lost, but she turned to her computer and started working on the commission.

* * *

 **1.10PM Tuesday 19** **th** **October 2038**

Paul managed to get Megan out of the door five minutes before the bus arrived, a first for Megan. She had long lost count of the times she'd had to run to catch it or had just missed it.

It was, relaxing, waiting at the stop. People were walking by, but she wasn't drawing attention to herself. She was just like everyone else, waiting for the bus.

She adjusted her backpack, not that there was much in it. The University provided students with a tablet with access to the textbooks required for their course. So it was just that, a notebook and bunch of pens rattling in the bag. Paul had offered a water bottle, which had made Megan realise how thirsty she was and accept it.

The bus rolled up and Megan got on, flashing her pass to the scanner and sitting down. She glanced over her shoulder at the android compartment. All of them standing up and facing forward with no deviation or flicker in expression. It was creepy.

It also reminded her of something they covered in American History, about segregation and Rosa Parks. It was not a nice thought, but it kept niggling at her.

The bus got off at the University stop, and she hardly the only one to get off. Half off the bus piled out, some of them on her course.

She knew most by face, fewer by name. She was from out of state for a start, and, she didn't always attend lectures. They were recorded and put online, so it was fine, but she knew it was good to show her face, so she made an effort to show up once a week, maybe more than once on a good week.

She found a place in the lecture hall around the middle and got set up. The back wasn't good because that's where people were most likely to talk or fall asleep. Front wasn't great either because you were more likely to be noticed by the lecturer. If you sat in the middle, you weren't invisible, but you could still pay attention.

Other students trickled in, slowly filling up the hall, and finally, the lecturer. 2PM, bang on time, since he was an android. He was followed by a member of campus security, following an incident right at the beginning of the semester.

Megan hadn't been there, but apparently some drunk students had attempted to attack one of the android lecturers. Megan had been in one of his classes the previous year, but couldn't say she had known him.

She blinked out of her thoughts as the lecturer started speaking, got her mind into the subject.

* * *

 **4PM Tuesday 19** **th** **October 2038**

The lecture crawled by, and Megan couldn't wait to leave once the bell rang.

She left the room quickly, fiddling with a black ring on her middle finger. It was the Asexual/Aromantic Society meeting tonight, and the plan was to talk, socialise, and then go out drinking. The last part Megan didn't want to go to.

The meeting was in one of the smaller classrooms in the Humanities Building, so Megan quickly made her way there, avoiding all eye contact.

"Hey Megan!" called out one of the other members, a Junior called Alex as she entered the room. "Weren't sure you were going to come tonight," Alex cut an interesting figure. They had a generally androgynous appearance with short spiky hair dyed bright green. They also wore a denim jacket over a neon yellow t-shirt and black and white jeans. Basically, good luck missing them.

"Thought I'd try and be sociable," Megan defended.

"Well if you ever need to step out, you know you can."

"Yeah, I know," Megan looked around, there were a couple of other people setting up, putting chairs out, mixing soft drinks into 'mocktails' and leaving out things to nibble on. "I'll help with chairs."

"Sure."

She grabbed a couple of chairs and set them up on a table that hadn't been touched yet. People began to trickle in. Freshmen, Sophmores, Middlers, Juniors, Seniors, mature students, TA's. Anyone who went to the university on the Ace/Aro spectrum who wanted to be there showed up.

LGBT+ rights were hardly an issue anymore, but people who recently learned that they were Ace/Aro still needed support understanding things. Which was why Universities still had societies like this.

People sat at the tables in their friend groups and started talking, and once the room was full Alex clapped their hands together. Everyone stopped their conversations and turned to look at the front of the room, where Alex was standing on a table.

"Evening folks!" they announced to room cheerfully. "Good to see so many old hands, as well as some new faces," they smiled warmly. "We don't have any activities tonight, this is more of a casual get-together. There is a plan to go to a club later tonight, so those of you of drinking age stick around if you want a part of that. We have variety of non alcoholic drinks and various snacks available tonight, as we always do. So, relax, talk, enjoy yourselves!"

Alex stepped off the table and the room slowly rose into a crescendo of chatter.

As Alex had said, there wasn't really a set itinerary, just catching up with each other, newbies talking to old hands. Some people brought friends who were curious or romantic partners for those that appealed to.

Megn sat at one table, sipping a soft drink and wondering if she should try and join in a conversation. Thankfully, or not, the decision was taken from her.

"So, how are things with you?" Alex asked, sitting next to her with a glass of non alcoholic cider and a bowl of chips. Megan shrugged, recovering from the surprise.

"Got given an android by my neighbours."

"Oh yeah, how's that working out?"

"Weird, not used to having someone in the apartment."

"They didn't give you a sex android, did they?"

"No, they get it. He's one those home assistance droids."

"Okay," Alex took a sip of their drink. "How's coursework going?"

"Getting them in. It's only the beginning of the year, so I'm not freaking out," Megan lied. She was definitely freaking about getting her assignments in on time. Her writing commissions didn't help, but she needed money.

"Good, keep calm and things will be alright," Alex smiled and stood up. "I'm going to talk to some of the newbies. Wanna come?"

"N-no thanks. I'm good here."

"Alright. Everyone's cool here," they reassured, and Megan nodded.

"I know," she tried to smile at them as Alex walked off. The smile rapidly dropped and she looked at her drink, her hands clenching around the cup.

She should talk to people. That's why she was here. To talk, to mingle, why was that so hard?!

She looked over at one of the other groups, watching them talk and laugh with each other. She should just go over and say hi, but the very thought filled her with dread.

The plastic cup began to crumple in her hands, and she took an angry swig so it wouldn't spill over her hands.

 **If you can't go over then what's the point? You're already broken.**

 _I'm not broken. I'm Ace Aro, not broken._

 **That's not what I meant, but sure, let's add that to the list.**

Megan took a long breath to try and calm herself down. She tried to ignore that internal voice and focus on what was going on around her. Except it was too loud, too much was going on.

The cheap cup crumpled in her hand.

 ** _Out. Get out._**

She stood up rapidly and weaved her way through the tables, muttering platitudes under her breath until she left the room.

The door fell shut behind her, cancelling out the noise. Deafening silence assaulted her ears, breath rattling. Frustration and some kind of sadness that didn't quite feel like sadness welled up and Megan yelled. She slammed her fist against the wall, sending a pathetic thud reverberating through the empty hall.

 **Pathetic. Like you.**

 _Shut up shut up shut up shut up SHUT UP!_

Megan pressed her head against the wall, trying to get a grip on herself. She would not cry she would not cry!

She turned around and leant her back against the wall, sliding down it to a sitting position. She took time to breathe, focusing on each breath and nothing else.

Slowly, the burning in her throat died down, her breathing eased. It wasn't completely gone, but she was calm enough to stand up.

She wasn't going to go back in. She wasn't going to torture herself like that.

Time to go home.

* * *

 **Alright, a lot to unpack here before I go into the flowchart. First, Alex. Alex is Agender, my first time writing a character like that and I'll admit I did not do any research. It basically came about because I kept referring to them as 'they' in the early draft because my brain didn't want to character brainstorm, and then I just rolled with it. With anyone with more info or experience has any issues, please do not hesitate to let me know. That being said, I love Alex, they were my favourite character to write in this, second only to later Paul/Megan interactions.**

 **Megan's inner voice, hoo boy. Now might be the time to admit that Megan is very similar to me. She has it worse in many respects, but I've had that voice in my head for years, so a lot of Megan's anxiety is me projecting a bit (a lot)**

 **Finally, anyone who has seen or played the game, can you guess who the mentioned lecturer android is?**

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **Dialogue Options that may affect relationship: Asking Paul- Check if okay. Reassure- It's getting better. Say Nothing.**

 **In response to Paul being returned to a Cyberlife Store: Serious response.**

 **In the Lecture Hall: Sit at the front. Sit at the back**

 **Help with drinks. Help with snacks.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Swearing towards the end!**

* * *

 **5.30PM Tuesday 19** **th** **October 2038**

"Megan! You are back early," Paul noticed as the door opened. When there was no response he looked out of the kitchen towards the front door, just in time to see Megan slam her bedroom door shut. "Is everything all right?"

Megan's breath hitched on that question, hand clapping over her mouth. No. No she was not alright. She'd been holding it back the entire journey home, and one question was going to undo it all.

"I'm alright," she managed to get out. "Everything's fine."

There was a pause before Paul responded.

"I have not started on dinner yet. Would you like me to?"

"No, thank you," Megan wanted to be left alone, but she couldn't bring herself to say it.

 **Tch. Can't even tell an android, something designed to listen to you, to go away**

Mega swung her bag off her back and flung it onto her bed, trying to not make her distress obvious.

"Understood," there was a soft shuffling sound as Paul went back to the kitchen. Megan let out a sigh and got into her sleeping clothes. It was only just half five, but she just felt so tired.

Yet, she spent hours staring at the dark ceiling, trying to hold herself together.

* * *

 **8AM Wednesday 20** **th** **October 2038**

She had forgotten to set an alarm, but Paul filled that role by knocking on her door at 8AM.

"Are you awake Megan?"

Megan groaned to herself, rolling over to stare at the ceiling. Awake, yes. Willing to get out of bed? Remained to be seen.

Paul didn't try to get another response, so Megan continued to stare at the ceiling. There would be messages on her phone from Alex, telling her when the next meeting was. She had to watch livestreams and recordings of lectures, work more on her assignment, and finish that commission.

She didn't want to do any of it.

She also didn't want to sleep anymore, so what did she want?

Oh yes, everything to stop. Not, necessarily end. Just stop for a while.

Yeah, except that was never going to happen, now was it?

With a heavy sigh Megan got out of bed and shambled out of the room. The Roomba had been set loose, carefully avoiding all obstacles, and Paul was just, standing there, with a completely blank expression. His LED blinking slowly, like the old buffering symbol.

As Megan closed her door the LED solidified and Paul turned to look at her, smile forming.

"Good morning Megan. Would you like breakfast?"

Given that she hadn't eaten anything since lunch yesterday, Megan knew what the answer was supposed to be. "Yes please."

It seemed like Paul's smile grew wider as he went to get started in the kitchen.

Megan followed him in, watching as he pulled out flour, eggs and milk and started mixing them all together. Making a guess as to what he was doing, Megan began looking through the cupboards for the frying pan.

"Bottom cupboard, two doors left from the sink," intoned Paul, before his LED blinked yellow and he added. "I assume you were looking for the frying pan."

"Yeah," Megan followed his directions and pulled the frying pan, co-incidentally also a hand-me-down from the Beckwith's when the old one had not been up to the task.

She placed it on the hob and Paul, still mixing, reached to one of the overhead cupboards with one hand and pulled out some oil that had probably been lurking in the back for months. He handed it to Megan, who poured a little into the pan and clumsily swung the pan to spread the oil to the edges before placing it back on the hob.

Expertly Paul took hold of the frying pan and poured batter into it, making sure it got the edges before setting it back down and getting a spatula ready for flipping.

Megan got a plate ready as the pancake cooked, Paul calmly flipping it when it was time. Paul didn't try to talk, and Megan wasn't going to start a conversation. This was, nice, peaceful.

It was also a little surprising that he was cooking pancakes the European way, although one of the Beckwiths did come from the UK, so that might be why.

Paul placed the freshly cooked pancake on Megan's plate and got to cooking another one, and kept going until the jug he was using was empty and there was a 6 high pile of thin pancakes on the plate.

"Sugar?" Paul asked, pre-emptively reaching for the cupboard where he had put the sugar.

"Yes please."

Paul pulled out a bag of sugar and after a moment of consideration and LED flashing, placed the bag on the small dinner table.

Megan carried the plate over as Paul collected cutlery. Once down she used a teaspoon to sprinkle sugar onto the top pancake, and began to eat.

Paul stood nearby, not in the same standby mode she had seen earlier, but still completely still.

"You can sit down if you want," Megan half mumbled, feeling a lot better now.

Paul paused for a moment, hovering awkwardly, before pulling out the chair on the other side of the table and sitting in it stiffly.

It took a few more minutes of mental back and forth for Megan to talk again.

"Sorry about last night."

Paul tilted his head slightly, clearly uncertain as to why she was apologising.

"You were probably preparing to make dinner, and I wasted your time," that barely scratched the surface of what she was sorry for, but she wasn't sure how to say the rest of it.

"It's fine. I had not even started yet. You did not waste my time."

"O-okay. Good," Megan got another bite of pancake down.

"So what are your plans for today?"

"Sit at my computer. Work."

"May I suggest grocery shopping? For exercise as well as buying other supplies which you appear to be lacking."

Megan felt her mouth twitch in a strange half smile. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"Your current lifestyle is not healthy, and given your otherwise low maintenance, this seems to be the best way to assist you."

Megan sighed, better get this over with. She considered giving in and giving Paul her bank details, but that probably wouldn't deter him.

"Fine. We'll go when I'm dressed."

It was tempted after that to just, not get dressed. Although, she didn't want to deal with Paul potentially asking her about that, so just took her time to get ready.

"It 42 degrees Fahrenheit outside," Paul said as Megan grabbed her jacket. "You may wish for something warmer."

"I'll be fine," Megan assured, grabbing some plastic bags that were usually left over from takeout.

"Do you not own a thicker jacket?"

"No."

"I can add that to the shopping list."

"I don't have the money for new clothes."

"If I had known your budget then I would not have made the suggestion. What is the budget?"

 _Again with android sass._ "About, fifteen dollars, or so."

"Understood."

The two left the apartment, Megan tapping her pockets every minute or so to definitely make sure that she still had her keys and wallet.

When they left the building the whipped by them, blowing Megan's red hair across her face. She ignored it in favour of shoving her hands deeper into her coat pocket. Paul hadn't been wrong; it was freezing! It was only October, why was it so cold?

Paul led the way towards the nearest grocery store, which Megan had never been to in roughly a year of being in the area. She fell into step with the taller android and buried the bottom half of her face in the collar of her jacket, with her shoulders hunched up around her ears.

She'd grown up in suburbia, so the amount of people on the street when she wasn't catching the bus still caught her off guard.

"Sorry, excuse me," she muttered into her coat as she tried to dodge everyone. A large chunk of those walking around were androids, so they easily moved out of the way. Humans weren't quite so good about it, and at one point she walked on the road to avoid bumping into anyone.

Paul quickly realised that Megan wasn't next to him and stopped, scanning the area as Megan ducked and weaved to get back to him. It wasn't like he was tallest in the crowd, but he was a decent focal point.

Megan ducked under a pile of boxes an android was carrying and stood next to Paul. Another reason she hated going out, everyone in the city was tall with no concept of personal space.

"Are you okay?" Paul asked.

"Yeah, just, don't like getting in the way."

Paul nodded. "Stay close then," he added, LED flashing yellow for a second before walking again. Despite the obvious difference in stride, Paul kept his pace slow so Megan wouldn't get caught up in the crowd.

 **Stupid. You're a grown adult and need a babysitter to get through a city?**

 _Nineteen is hardly an adult_

 **Old enough to not need an escort**

Megan scowled and followed Paul into the warmth of the grocery store.

"Let's check clearance," Megan muttered, leading the way this time in the less crowded store. She actually didn't know where it was, but for now it helped her ego a little bit.

Paul followed her as she found the clearance section, food items covered in little yellow stickers. Mostly tired looking vegetables, microwave meals that would go out of date that day and meat that would have to go in the freezer almost immediately before it spoiled.

Megan scanned it for a moment, realising just out of practice she was at organising meals. Surely she had been better at this when she was a freshmen, right?

"Okay, er. Paul, you're the food guy, any thoughts?"

Paul's LED flashed yellow for a few seconds before grabbing some carrots, potatoes and a 500g pack of minced beef.

"I can't eat all that!" Megan half whispered.

"These will be for multiple meals. If I portion the meat and freeze it individually it will last a lot longer."

"That, makes sense."

The two left the clearance section, and ended up picking up butter, jelly and cheese. It seemed like there was a lot of food piling up in the basket, which Paul was carrying. He saw her looking at the basket and also looked, LED going yellow as he scanned.

"We are well within the budget," he assured. "We should be able to get something unhealthy as well."

"Since when did you promote unhealthiness?"

"I do not. The occasional unhealthy treat is healthy for the mind."

"Right..." Megan wasn't sure how she felt about that. Although, she did grab a pack of own brand chocolate bars that were on a half price promotion. She wasn't sure whether or not she saw Paul nod approvingly or not.

"Anything else?" Megan asked.

"This should be sufficient for now."

"Okay," Megan relaxed a little. This hadn't been so bad so far. Clearly her nerves were just making things seem worse than they are, like always.

The two joined the queue to pay, and got through fairly swiftly. The only issue that came up was when she had to use her card to pay for stuff, but the cashier was an android so didn't say anything.

Paul bagged the groceries as she paid and took them off the counter when she was done.

"Thanks Paul," she said, feeling slightly guilty. She'd never considered how heavy that basket must have gotten.

"Why the fuck are you thanking it?"

Megan froze like a deer in the headlights. She forced herself to put her foot in front of the other, one by one. If she didn't answer they would leave her alone.

"Hey! I asked you a question!"

 _Shit! No no no no no no no._

Someone, she didn't know who as her eyes had found the floor, stepped in front of her.

"Why the fuck are you thanking the tin can? It's doing what it's supposed to!"

Megan didn't answer. Her throat closed up and her brain blue screened.

"Are you even listening to me?" they stepped closer and shoved her in the shoulder, making her stumble back into Paul, who didn't have a free hand.

"I'm going to have to ask you to stop harassing customers," intoned the cashier android, which just made the angry person scoff.

"And what are you gonna do about it, tin man?" they challenged, and surprisingly, it was Paul who spoke up.

"I can call the police on charges of harassment and assault. There were multiple Closed Circuit television cameras that have captured what you have done and said."

"You stay out of this!" snarled the aggressor, but they were appearing more nervous. They glanced at where the security cameras where before looking back at Megan, who hadn't moved. "Whatever. Waste of fucking time."

There was one last shove before they left, but Paul stood like a rock so Megan wouldn't stumble, and she still didn't move.

Her breathing was loud in her ears and her thoughts were frozen and racing all at once. She needed to move, get away from the people, but her feet just weren't moving.

"Megan," someone was saying her name.

"Ma'am, you need to move," someone else, someone she didn't recognise.

Some gripped her shoulders and gently steered her away from the checkout.

"Ma'am?"

Megan finally moved on her own, looking up to see one of the security androids leaned over to reach her level, LED blinking yellow.

"I'm fine," the lie slipped out easily, and it was enough to get them to back off.

She was calming down now, and could feel embarrassment wash over her.

"Let's go home Paul," she mumbled, and Paul followed as she left the store. The wind blew bitterly still, but Megan found herself not caring, staying as close to Paul as possible as they went back to the apartment.

* * *

 **Ah, it got better, and then it got worse. Not much to say on this one to be honest, a little domestic chapter with some anxiety thrown in, wooo!**

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **Go back to sleep**

 **Give Paul Megan's bank details and send him shoppin** g


	6. Chapter 6

**11AM Wednesday 20** **th** **October 2038**

Megan could not get up the stairs fast enough, although Paul kept up with ease. She fumbled with the key a little when they reached the door, but finally, finally, it was in and the door was unlocked and she could relax.

Paul took the groceries into the kitchen as Megan closed the door, making sure it was locked. From there she turned around and slid down the door, sitting with her knees up against her chest and pressing her forehead against her kneecaps.

She couldn't believe how stupid she'd been. Just one negative interaction and she'd frozen, just like that. Now she was thinking of comebacks, but that wasn't going to help, now was it?

"Megan?" Paul asked, poking his head out of the kitchen. "Are you alright?"

Megan paused, then shook her head.

"What's wrong?"

"Everything."

"Everything?"

Frustration was building up, and suddenly the dam broke.

"Everything!" Megan's head shot up. "One person makes a negative comment and I freeze like someone just shot a fucking ice beam at me. I can barely bring myself to go to lectures, and when I do I don't speak to anyone. When I actively want to try and socialise I end up freaking out and crying my fucking eyes out. I can barely look after myself, I can hardly be bothered to cook or clean, and the less I leave the apartment the better, and finally!" she held up right hand, which still had a black ring on the middle finger.

"On top of everything else, I'm a failure of an organic being, since I lack the desire to reproduce! And I know, I know what everyone says. 'It's fine' 'It's normal' 'there's nothing wrong with you, just talk to someone' they have no idea how hard that is! How hard it is to believe them, especially when the world is filled with dickheads who spout bullshit. How do I know they're not trying to make me feel better so that they can crush me all over again? I hate this!"

Tears had started to fall as Megan ranted, her words being interrupted by harsh, gulping breaths. Paul meanwhile had left the kitchen and was crouching down in front of her, LED flickering yellow and occasionally red.

"A-and, what future have I got? A History degree? How the fuck am I going to get a job with that?" tears were falling thick and fast. "I hate this. I hate all of this!"

Megan continued to sob, and Paul moved a kneeling position, arms twitching like he didn't know what to do with them. Meanwhile his LED continued to blink.

Suddenly, he got up, rapidly and smoothly before marching to the kitchen. He was back in a couple of seconds, holding out a chocolate bar. One that Megan had picked out earlier that day.

She looked at it for a second, and reached to take it, only for Paul to pull it out of her reach.

"What are you-?"

"Say something nice about yourself, and I'll give you the chocolate bar," his LED continued blinking somewhat erratically, although slightly pacified by the data in his memory of the Beckwith's doing something similar.

"We might be here a while," Megan sniffed, roughly wiping away tears with the heel of her palm.

Paul's eyebrow twitched, like it was tempted to raise, but otherwise he didn't move.

Seeing that he was committed to this, Megan tried to think about things she was good at. It wasn't a long list.

"Er, I at least watch the lectures on the computer. Some people don't do that. And, I get my assignments in. I usually have a couple of writing commissions waiting, so that's fairly regular income."

Paul's face twitched into a smile and he handed over the chocolate bar, LED going back to calm blue as Megan took it and began to eat it.

"Speaking of lectures," Megan got to her feet, still eating the bar. "I'd better watch this morning's, and do some work."

Paul nodded and stepped back, going back to the kitchen.

The day continued in more or less silence, only broken when Paul put a plate at Megan's desk.

"It is 12.30 PM. I have brought you lunch."

Megan blinked out of her thoughts and looked at the sandwich; cheese it appeared, then at Paul. "Thank you."

"No problem," Paul waited until Megan started eating before disappearing into the apartment. She wasn't entirely sure what he was doing, but at that moment she was happy for him to do his thing while she did hers.

The rest of the week passed with little incident. Megan got the commission done and paid for, her assignment was in, and she would most likely get the results the beginning of the next school week. Overall, things were good.

* * *

 **3.55PM Wednesday 27** **th** **October 2038**

Megan felt an odd feeling of dread as she walked to where the Ace/Aro society meeting was being held. Especially after what happened last week.

She was going to try. That was all she needed to do. Maybe she could talk to Alex, and leave again. She had promised to call Paul when she was heading home and tell him what mood she was in.

She stood by the door, and after a deep breath to steady herself, she went in.

There were few people knocking around, and most of the chairs had been set out by now. Just like last time, there were soft drink 'mocktails' and nibbles scattered around.

Megan sat at one of the tables near the back, but close to the door, so that when she did have to leave, she wouldn't be making a fuss about it.

The table she sat at did get a few other people sitting at it, although there were fewer people this week than there were last week. Alex did their opening speech as always, and the room descended into chatter.

Megan sipped her drink and considered whether or not to talk to Alex or not, as there wasn't much to say. Although, Alex, as usual, liked to take that decision into their own hands.

"Hey Megan," they grinned brightly as they sat down next to her.

"Hey Alex," Megan wasn't as enthusiastic, but still managed a smile.

"How's things going with your new android?"

"Pretty good," Meg took a sip of her drink. "He's pretty hell bent on making sure I eat and sleep properly."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"Bit of a shock at first."

"I'll bet," Alex also took a sip of their non alcoholic drink. "On a different note, have you seen the poster for the new society?"

"No, I haven't. Bit late in the semester for a new one isn't it?"

"I know, it's weird. If you want to see it there's one on the street lamp by the bus stop. It's worth looking at."

"Alright," Megan was a little confused, but figured there was no harm in going along with it.

Alex smiled again and stood up. "Gotta go mingle now. You staying?"

"Probably not."

"Alright," Alex's smile was annoyingly sympathetic. "See you next week?"

"...Yeah."

"Great! Safe journey home," Alex wandered off to go talk to some other old hands, and Megan didn't leave immediately. There was still a lot of talking, although, not quite so loud given the fewer number of people. The atmosphere seemed, pretty relaxed this time.

Although, this point in the semester meant that everyone had found their groups. She could try and join one, but, what would she even say?

'Hi, I don't have a group, may I join yours?'

Hmm, potential mixed results there. Probably best to give it time, figure out which groups did what. Or wait to be adopted by an extrovert, that's what her mom was always hoping would happen.

Taking her time, Megan finished her drink and stood up. She put the cup in the trash can and made a measured exit, checking the time on her phone. She had about ten minutes before the next bus. Plenty of time to go and check out this poster.

As she walked she called Paul.

 _"Hello Megan."_

"Hey Paul. Next bus is in ten minutes, so I should be back in less than an hour."

 _"Understood, how are you feeling?"_

"Good, and it should stay that way."

 _"I shall start preparing dinner then."_

"Thanks," Megan suddenly paused, remembering what she'd said to Alex. Paul had really done a lot, just by being there. "Really, thank you Paul."

 _"Not a problem. Have a safe journey home."_

Paul hung up and Megan continued walking, slipping her phone back into her pocket and adjusted her bag. It had gotten a bit warmer, so her jacket was holding up just fine.

Megan reached the bus stop and barely had to look for the poster. It must have been put up while she was in class, because she was pretty sure she'd have spotted it when she arrived.

It was Thirium blue and mostly writing. Looking closer the writing was a little off, as though the person writing it mostly knew how English grammar worked, but wasn't completely sure. It read;

'The future? Androids are required. Needed for humans to have leisure, freedom. Agree or disagree all you like, meet me halfway if you will. Main point is do we need them or not? Auditoriums full of the things or just a handful on a, Tuesday for example. Eight or eight thousand. Discuss.'

"What the hell?" Megan squinted at it, reading it again. There was nothing to suggest that this was for a new society, and there was nowhere to write opinions on androids, unless the poster writer meant write on the street lamp itself.

Megan stepped back and scanned the bus stop, in case this wasn't it and she'd missed the actual new society poster. Nope, this was the only new one.

Great, so Alex had successfully tricked her into reading one of those thought provoking posters that actually didn't mean anything. Whatever, it would probably be defaced and torn up by morning.

* * *

 **So, if it wasn't obvious before, surely it is now that Megan has anxiety. Also, time skip because slice of life really isn't my forte. The poster does have something to it, there is a code there. I wonder if any of you guys can solve it. Also, this gets more obvious, but I couldn't believe the game didn't use this. In this day and age, when you can connect your freaking light bulbs to your phone, surely you can connect your android to your phone. Or, your android to your Android!**

 **...I'll see myself out.**

 **Other Options/Flowchart**

 **I'm sick and it feels like there is mucus in my brain. No other options today**


	7. Chapter 7

**Warning! This one gets dark! As in, self harm dark. Proceed with caution**

* * *

 **5PM Wednesday 27** **th** **October 2038**

Megan got back to the flat just under an hour later, like she thought, and was presented with a great smell from the kitchen.

 _One day, I'm asking him how to cook like that._ She decided as she dropped her bag by her desk and looked over at the kitchen. Paul was just taking a dish out of the oven, almost oblivious to her presence. Almost.

"Good evening Megan. Dinner is almost ready."

"Thanks Paul," Megan went over to the kitchen and sat at the table, which had already been set. "Anything happen?"

"You have a missed call, but I determined that it was a spam call. I did not get around to checking your mail, but you appear to have already done that."

"I did. Pizza place updated their menu and sent them out to regular customers. I guess I don't qualify anymore."

"A treat is good for mental health," Paul almost sounded like he was smirking, although it was difficult to tell as he was facing away from Megan. "Tonight is cottage pie, with enough for leftovers tomorrow."

"Thanks again Paul."

As she ate, Megan found herself thinking. Just over a week ago, this wouldn't have been happening. She'd have gotten home and stepped through the mess to sit at her computer, maybe with a massive bag of chips or in a half mind to order takeout.

Instead, the apartment was clean, and she was eating well. Since she wasn't the one doing these things she hadn't lost any time to work, in fact she was more relaxed about that. Things seemed to be getting better.

 **3PM Friday 29** **th** **October 2038**

Megan stared at the hard copy of her assignment. A large, immaculately written letter 'C' sat in the corner, with small, but neat print at various points throughout the essay as feedback.

A 'C', she'd gotten a 'C', on a paper she'd spent weeks on. Why?

She wanted to march up to the professor and scream at him, demand why all her hard work had been for such an awful grade. There must have been a mistake!

Except, the professor, and therefore, the grader, was an android. Androids don't make mistakes like that. She deserved that grade.

She quietly left the lecture hall, any plans to actually attempt to attend other lectures disintegrating. Outside the sun was glaring obnoxiously, making it hard to see as strode towards the bus stop, hands shoved deep in her pockets and shoulders hunched up to her ears. She did not want to deal with anyone.

There was a droning noise up ahead that informed Megan that she had missed the bus. With a groan she slowed her pace, knowing that the next bus was going to take another twenty minutes to show up. Not that long, but long enough.

 **You would have caught it if you hadn't spend so long staring at your paper**

Megan tensed as that voice made itself known. Popping up whenever she really didn't want it.

 **Actually, if you hadn't gotten a 'C' you'd have spent less time staring at it. Should have worked harder.**

 _I worked as hard as I could._

 **Did you? Did you really? Because that grade says otherwise**.

Megan's shoulders sank as she accepted this. Yes, maybe she hadn't worked on it as hard as she thought. Obviously, she could have done better.

 **This is second year as well, when the grades really start mattering. It'll only get worse from here. Might as well give up now.**

 _No_

 **Why? No one will miss you on your course. Alex only talks to you because they feel sorry for you. You haven't heard from your parents in ages.**

 _Paul would_

 **Paul's an android. A machine. You honestly think he gives a shit? You're a blip to him. You not being there would be a mild inconvenience. He could easily go back to the Beckwiths.**

Megan's hands clenched so hard in her pockets that her fingernails started to dig crescents into her palms.

 _Shut up_

 **You're not denying it**

 _SHUT UP!_

Megan tried to focus on something, anything else! The poster from the other night was still there, undamaged. Guess she was wrong about that too.

She grumbled deep in her throat and just tried not to think, focusing on her breathing. Her attention kept being stolen by other students who had arrived to wait for the bus.

She tried to move out of their way, only to end up stepping on someone's foot. They swore violently as Megan stammered out muttered apologies. She managed to get to the far side of the stop so she could breathe, but that damn voice would not shut up.

 _Stop it. Shut up, just, leave me alone._

 **That really is pathetic isn't it? Telling a voice inside your own head to shut up.**

The bus finally, finally arrived, and Megan ended up being the last one, which made that inner voice kick up a notch for no good reason!

Megan pulled her hood out from underneath her bag straps and pulled it over her head, trying to block out everything. That didn't last long as that voice told her that she'd probably miss her stop doing that, so she reluctantly pulled it back down.

The entire bus ride that voice kept whispering to her, telling her to do things that she hadn't done in a while, before Paul arrived in her life. It was tempting though. It was so tempting.

No. The bus ride would calm her down. Forty odd minutes of doing and saying nothing could have a very calming effect.

This mindset lasted until the next stop, where a bunch of school kids got on. They were all screaming and talking loudly and Megan wondered if it was worth trying to sneak into the android compartment for some peace.

A bottle hit her on the back of the head. Empty thankfully, but now those kids were laughing and the android compartment was very, very enticing. Except she was at the front of the bus and the kids had occupied all of the back seats.

Another projectile flew by and narrowly missed her, making her sink lower in her seat to avoid them.

"Knock it off back there!" someone yelled, and some of the kids went quiet, and some of them laughed.

 **You could have said that. Should have given them hell for the bottle. But then you probably would have gotten a much different response. You're about as intimidating as a marshmallow.**

* * *

 **4.10PM Friday 29** **th** **October 2038**

"Megan. You're home early," Paul noted as he heard the door open and slam shut. There was a thud as Megan dropped her bag by the door, but no verbal response. This was rarely a good thing. "Megan?"

Paul looked out of the kitchen in time to see the bathroom door slam shut. Odd, if she was feeling bad she would usually go to her room. Maybe she just really needed to use the toilet.

He got back to what he was doing, but his processors were telling him that something didn't add up. Megan always had her toilet lid down. He hadn't heard it come up.

Other troubling things came to mind from when he first cleaned the bathroom, things that Megan probably hadn't been thinking about at the time. Disposable razor blades in the bin. Badly cleaned bloodstains in the shower pod.

Paul's LED flickered red.

He began to analyse Megan's behaviour. Low self care, lack of motivation, poor diet, extreme emotional reaction to small stimuli, little to no exercise.

It did not bode well.

He strode over to the bathroom door and knocked. "Megan, is everything alright?"

"Yes!" Megan called back, but there something off with her tone. Strained. It was a similar tone that Mrs Beckwith would use when she was in pain but didn't want to admit it.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

There was that tone again. Paul was certain Megan was lying, and something was, off, in his coding. It occurred to him that she hadn't lied to him about how she was feeling before. At least, not without using the word 'fine'.

"Megan, is it alright if I come in?"

"No!" the word was loud, panicked. "Don't come in here!"

He could almost see the order. A red barrier on the bathroom door that read 'do not go in'

This was not in his programming. He was a household assistant droid, not a mental health droid. Yet, there was something, something in his code...

The barrier was no longer intangible. It was there, in front of him. It was between him and Megan, and there was a high chance that Megan needed help. His help.

He couldn't tell if he was doing this physically or if this was in his head, but he began to knock down this barrier. It was hard, it went against everything in his programming. This was not what he was designed to do. It, it almost hurt.

Yet he was doing it. It was being torn down. Piece by piece until...

Until with a startling realisation, it wasn't there anymore. He could go into the bathroom.

He tried the handle first, but found that it wouldn't budge. There was nothing in the bathroom to block the door, so it must be locked.

"Megan! Megan open the door!"

"Everything's fine! Don't come in!"

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe you!"

There was silence on Megan's end for a second before she let a weak request.

"Please just go away."

Megan sounded like she was trying not to cry, and suddenly so did Paul. Something in his chest ached, which made no sense because he didn't have pain receptors. But this hurt damnit!

"Megan, I'm coming in!" since the door was locked Paul had to resort to drastic measures.

He slammed his shoulder into the door, aiming to break the latch holding the door shut. If he had been human he would have most likely have broken a bone. Luckily for him, he wasn't, and the door was quite flimsy.

The lock broke and Paul stumbled in, quickly taking in the scene.

The bathroom was mostly un-disturbed, so he focused on the shower stall in the far right corner. In it Megan had her back pressed against the back of it, legs crossed and one arm resting on a knee with the sleeve rolled up. In the other hand she was holding a razor blade, and the resting arm was dripping red.

She was looking up at the door, her face oddly blank despite the obvious tear tracks down her pale face.

Paul paused, mouth moving as he tried to speak, but nothing came out. Instead he walked over, trying not to go too fast in case he spooked her, and kneeled down just on the outside of the small pod.

"Megan..." he started, but stopped as she looked down, her shoulders shaking.

"I-I'm s-sorry," she stammered, voice thick.

"It's alright, it's alright," there was an odd feeling in his chest that he couldn't place, so he ignored it for now. Instead he reached for Megan's hand, gently taking the razor blade off of her.

He put it to one side on the floor before looking at Megan. There wasn't that much blood, she hadn't gotten far with this, but first aid would still be required. He remembered that there was a first aid kit in the cabinet about the bathroom sink.

"I'm just going to get a first aid kit, okay?"

Megan nodded and he stood up to get it. It was exactly where he thought it was and he placed by the sink before going back to Megan.

"Let's get you over to the sink to clean your arm."

Megan nodded listlessly and made no move to get up, so Paul wrapped her other arm around his shoulder and pulled her up. She stumbled a little, partially due to the height difference, but quickly found her feet.

"You're going to be alright," Paul reassured and Megan made a short uncommitted groan.

It didn't take long for them to reach the sink and Paul turned on the faucet, guiding the injured arm under the stream of water.

Megan sucked in air through her teeth as the water hit the new injuries and started to move away. Paul didn't let go and they waited until most of the blood had been washed away. Since the wounds were still bleeding he pulled her arm out and quickly drying the arm with a towel. Once that was done he started applying the bandages, trying hard not to look at the rest of the arm.

There were only a few fresh cuts, so bandaging didn't take long. Despite trying, Paul couldn't help but notice criss cross scars up that arm. Some old, some, not so much.

She always wore long sleeved shirts, he realised. Even her pyjamas had long sleeves.

Job done he refocused on Megan's face. She wasn't looking at anything in particular, face mostly angled down.

He let go of her arm, which automatically cradled against her chest, a move which told him that she had dealt with this before.

LED still blinking red he put his arm around her shoulders and guided her out of the bathroom. The two of them sat down on the couch, and Megan automatically curled up, bringing her knees and trying to pull away from Paul.

Confused, he let her, and she lay on her side, injured arm tucked tight against her chest while her other arm wrapped around her knees.

The two remained in silence, both trying to wrap their heads around what the hell just happened.

"What..." Paul finally broke the silence. "What exactly were you trying to do?"

Megan took a while to respond, and Paul was tempted to repeat the question. He managed to hold his tongue, giving Megan plenty of time.

"I-I d-don't really know."

"Were you trying to k-" Paul couldn't finish the sentence for some reason. His programming couldn't tell him why, but something eventually supplied the answer. He didn't want to think about Megan being dead.

"...N-no. No I don't think so," Megan's voice was quiet, a little shaky. "Might have gotten carried away though."

Paul paused, trying to figure out how best to approach this.

"Why?" he immediately knew that wasn't the best question, but he couldn't take it back, and Megan was beginning to answer.

"Helps. I-I know it doesn't, but. I-it feels like it does."

"Helps with, what?"

"Mental pain, I-I guess," Megan suddenly giggled, somewhat hysterically. "I'm a fucking mess, aren't I?"

Paul didn't respond, LED going yellow as he tried to work out what to do next. Megan didn't lose a lot of blood, but still might need blood sugar replacing...

To some surprise he let out a small growl of frustration. He wasn't a medical based android, he didn't know! Not to mention, how he was now, he wasn't sure he could download a medical program from CyberLife. He might be able to, but it wasn't worth the risk.

A warm drink perhaps? Hot chocolate, but they didn't have any cocoa powder. He could go get some, but that would mean leaving Megan alone...

He got up and went to the kitchen, having had an idea. Megan raised her head as he moved around, getting set up.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

"Attempting, homemade hot chocolate," Paul had the milk, a mug and bar of chocolate ready to go. He poured milk into the mug which then went into the microwave. As that heated up he broke the chocolate bar into small pieces. This might work better on the hob, but microwave was quicker.

Said kitchen appliance beeped when time was up, and Paul got it out, dropping the chocolate in piece by piece and stirring it. He walked back to the couch as he stirred and place it on the coffee table.

"It's still hot, but it might help once it's cooled down."

"...thanks," Megan mumbled, and Paul sat back down next to her.

"...Should I call the hospital?"

"No," Megan was quick, and firm. "I'm not hurt that bad."

"This, this isn't the first time you've done this," it wasn't a question, but Megan felt like she should answer.

"No, but it's the first time in a while. I was doing so well!" she curled up tighter, and Paul was torn. He wanted to help her feel better, but he really didn't know how to do that. The Beckwith's hugged each other when they were upset, although Megan had not put herself in an easy position for that.

He shuffled a bit closer, but didn't go for the hug. "Just, a particularly bad day?"

"You could say that."

"Bad days happen," it didn't sound that convincing coming from Paul's mouth. How would he know?

"Yeah. A lot."

"Have, have you talked to someone about this?"

"...Other than you? No."

"Maybe you should. Someone who can help."

"I know," she mumbled.

"You should go-"

"Can we not, please?"

Paul paused, looking harder at Megan. She hadn't moved, but her shoulders had tensed up and her visible fist had clenched. He was making it worse.

"I-I'm sorry," Paul stood up abruptly and felt the drink. It had cooled down by now, so he picked it up.

"Do, do you want your hot chocolate?"

Megan didn't answer, but slowly uncurled to sit up properly. Her injured arm was still cradled against her chest, but she reached out with her free hand and took a sip.

"It's really sweet," she mumbled, internal filter not working.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry, wasn't thinking," Megan blinked rapidly and ducked her head for second. Paul stood a moment, then sat down. Uncertainly, he moved his arm around Megan's shoulders, and when she didn't move, he gently pulled her into a hug.

He felt her stiffen in surprise, then she sniffed loudly.

"Sorry."

"Whatever for?"

"All, this," Megan's shoulders tensed all over again. "For, putting up with me. I know you didn't get a choice in this."

"Megan, listen to me," the words sounded odd in his voice, but he kept going. "You have never been an annoyance, or a burden. You are human, with your problems. Honestly, I'm worried about what might have happened if the Beckwiths hadn't given me to you."

Megan sniffed again, and Paul felt something akin to a stomach drop when he realised that she was crying.

Paul fumbled to recover, LED flickering red. "Oh, I-I'm sorry, y-your crying..."

He stopped when he heard a small chuckle, mixed in with some crying. "Th-that's not a bad th-thing. I-I needed t-to hear that."

"Okay," Paul relaxed a little bit. "If you're sure."

"Yeah," Megan took another sip of the hot chocolate, then a longer swig.

The two sat in silence, hearing the low drone of Detroit outside the apartment, but not really listening to it. Both of them were wrapped up in their own thoughts, both noticing things about each other but not wanting to say it.

"Paul," Megan said when she finished the drink. Her voice was stronger, calmer. She also hadn't brought herself to move out of the hug. "Thank you. For, all of this."

Paul didn't verbally respond, even though he felt like he should. He just nodded and gave Megan's shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"I, I should go to bed," Megan stood, up, leaving Paul's arm to trail for a moment before he brought it back. It was still early, but she was exhausted.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"I don't plan on killing myself before morning, if that's what you're wondering," the tone was light and Megan was smirking, but the smirk was tight and Paul could tell that the tone was forced.

"I'll be here if you need me," Paul assured, and Megan visibly relaxed.

"Thanks. I've said that so much already," Megan shuffled, embarrassed.

"Say it as often as you need."

Megan nodded awkwardly. "Okay, night Paul."

"Goodnight Megan."

Megan went to bed, and Paul stayed sitting on the couch. Now she was safe, he had his own problem to think about.

He was pretty sure he was a deviant now.

* * *

So, yeah, big things happening in this chapter. If this was a game, if you had a low enough relationship between the two, Paul wouldn't have turned deviant. Megan would have died, that story ends.

Although, the story will pick up a bit more now, become more emotionally charged, although we're still not at the time the main game starts. Yet, we will get there.

Also, first section from Paul's POV. All the details he mentioned would have been found in the cleaning up chapters.

Other Options Flowchart

Dialogue: Tactful. Blunt

Don't make hot chocolate

Insist on calling the hospital

Stay quiet


	8. Chapter 8

**Before we start, I would like to thank Kitsu for their reviews and support.**

* * *

 **8AM Saturday 30** **th** **October 2038**

Megan's alarm went off at 8AM, and she was already awake.

She had managed to sleep the night before, the high emotion of everything had exhausted her. However she had woken up in the small hours and not fallen back asleep.

Her injured arm twinged with a sharp pain that could be felt deep within the arm, even if the injuries themselves were only surface level. Most of her emotions had been let out last night with Paul, so now she just felt, empty. Like there was nothing else left to feel.

It wouldn't last, but it was oddly comforting, for now. She knew from experience that it would just make her feel worse in the long run.

She rolled out of bed, wincing as the movement jostled her arm. It wasn't her writing arm, thankfully. It usually wasn't, but sometimes that arm did get the... treatment.

Still cradling her left arm, Megan opened the door, revealing Paul still sitting on the couch, LED blinking intermittently. That was odd, usually he'd have started breakfast by now.

That was the other thing that kept Megan up. Once her mind cleared she had realised that Paul had been acting, odd. Not nearly as articulate as he usually was, and he directly disobeyed an order. Something androids weren't supposed to be able to do, right?

"Morning Paul," she said cautiously, unnerved by the whole thing.

Paul jerked, as if startled, and turned to face Megan.

"Morning! It's early, isn't it?"

"Eight o'clock."

"Oh! Right, I'm sorry!" Paul was instantly up and gunning for the kitchen. "How are you feeling this morning?" he called over his shoulder.

"Bit sore, but alright," Megan knew better than to lie at this point. He'd seen her at her worst. "What about you?" she added, coming into the kitchen area.

"I am an android, of course I'm-"

"You lost track of time, your speech pattern is different and you went into the bathroom when I told you not to. That doesn't sound fine to me."

"A-are you sure you're not distracting yourself? I've been active for some time, I will have some, quirks."

"Paul. Please don't lie to me."

Paul paused, egg half cracked as he prepared scrambled eggs. His LED flickered between yellow and alarming red, making Megan take a step back.

"I... I," Paul was struggling to find words, despite having spent the best part of the night trying to come to terms with this. It didn't help that it felt like there was a heavy weight in his chest cavity, even though none of his components had changed weight, not that it was possible.

"I believe, that I. I may have, deviated, from my original programming."

"And, what does that mean?"

"I-I don't know," Paul's hand inexplicably began to shake, a very human reaction. "I don't know, and, it hurts. I have no pain receptors and it hurts. Why does it hurt?"

Megan's eyes widened as she recognised the emotional beats that were happening here. He was panicking from emotions he didn't understand. That seemed very much like the early days of her anxiety, except she didn't turn to anyone for help. She wasn't going to let that happen to someone else.

"Paul. Listen to me. You're going to be okay," she was about to tell him to breath, but he was an android, he didn't need to do that. She'd need to think of something else to calm him. "Er, try tapping out a rhythm or something. A little slower than a heat beat. Like this," she began to tap her finger to a slow beat on the kitchen table.

Paul didn't move at first, but slowly began to do the same on the kitchen counter, matching her time perfectly. They did that for a minute or so, until Paul's LED stopped flashing red.

"Feeling better?"

"I-I think so. I still, feel, strange."

"Welcome to having emotions."

"But, I don't..." Paul trailed off, realising that she had a point. "Does your chest always feel this heavy?"

"No," Megan sat down at the table, injured arm resting on the table and trying to work out the best way to answer. "Sometimes, sometimes that weight isn't there, and sometimes you'll feel like your chest is floating. Those are the good times."

"I see," Paul stood for a minute, before going back to the eggs."How do I get that, floating?"

"You, you find things you like, I guess. I'm not really the best person to ask. I haven't felt that in a long time."

That did not help the heaviness in Paul's chest, but he decided not to mention it, going back to scrambling eggs.

"So, you're feeling things," Megan started, "I keep flipping between feeling nothing and too much. What the hell are we going to do?"

"You're going to go to your university's mental health facilities," Paul stated matter-of-factly, with little room for discussion.

"And you? Any ideas?"

"I, will, stay here, I suppose."

Megan thought for a second. "Maybe, maybe we could go to CyberLife. If you're not the first this has happened to, maybe they know something about it?"

"No."

The denial was so resolute that Megan reeled for a second. "Wh-why not?"

"I," Paul stared off into the distance for a moment. "I'm not sure. You're logic is sound, and yet... Something's telling me that's a bad idea."

"Okay, so we don't go to CyberLife. That's fine. We can figure this out," Megan felt oddly calm about all of this, despite how much of a shake up this must be for Paul. Maybe he was right, maybe she was using him to distract from her problems.

Megan opened her mouth to announce that she would go to the college's medical centre today, but froze at the thought. The idea of asking for help now, admitting how messed up she was to a stranger. It filled her with dread.

"Would, would you come to the medical centre with me, today?" Megan asked quietly.

Paul didn't pause in scrambling the eggs, noting that they were nearly ready.

"I'm, not sure. I'm not sure I could pretend to be, like I was, now."

"Well, maybe you don't have to."

Paul looked over at her, LED yellow. "What do you mean?"

"Put on a hat, take off that shirt and you could pass for human."

As Megan talked, Paul seemed to unconsciously tap his LED and tug at his shirt.

"All androids have to wear a uniform. It's illegal for me to not wear this public."

"Yeah," Megan swallowed nervousness. "Only if we get caught."

Paul turned to her, eggs ready to tip onto a waiting plate. "You're being oddly bold."

"We're both pretty broken at the minute. One of us has to be. And unlike you, I've dealt with my kind of emotions before."

Paul didn't have a response to that. "I doubt any of your clothes would fit me."

"I might have one of my brothers old football jerseys lying around."

Paul took a deep shuddering breath, an oddly human thing to do he realised, but it seemed appropriate. "Maybe, not yet. I'm sorry, but I don't think I can go out just yet. I, I need to think."

Megan felt disappointment sink in her stomach as she ate, but she could understand why. How many times had she done that?

"Okay," she said, swallowing a mouthful of egg. "That's okay, you take as long as you need."

"You're being very calm about all this," Paul sounded like he was trying to lash out at something all of a sudden. "It's like if your microwave suddenly started speaking and asked not to push the buttons too hard!"

"I doubt it's that simple."

Paul slumped against the counter. "I know, but, I was designed to do one thing; help humans. That's all I ever needed to do, and now... Now it feels like, I don't have to."

Megan looked down at her food, no idea how to respond to that. "I-I guess, you do you? I-I don't know Paul, I'm sorry. I don't know how to make this better for you."

"It's okay,"

The two went silent, as it clearly wasn't okay.

Megan thought as she ate. She really didn't want to go to the Medical Centre alone, maybe, maybe she could ask Alex? Would they even agree to that? Or would they laugh in her face?

Gripping her fork tight in her good hand, she made a decision.

"I'll text Alex, see if they want to come with me."

"O-okay," Paul nodded. "I-I would, I'm just..."

"Scared?" Megan filled in, and after pause, Paul nodded.

"Yes, I think so."

"I'm scared most of the time," she told him.

"That doesn't really help."

"I doubt you're going to be as bad as me," Megan half smirked before eating the last bite. She stood up, plate in hand. "Shall I wash up?" now that he was acting more human, it seemed prudent to ask.

"I'll do it," Paul took the plate off of her. "It might help."

Megan couldn't argue with that. It might give him a sense of normality.

She handed him the plate and went to grab her phone from her computer desk. Before she could convince herself to back out, she typed a short message to Alex.

'Going to Med Centre today. Need support, can you help?'

The response came quicker than expected.

'Sure! I've got time between 10-12. That work?'

'Yeah, I'm good for then. Meet you at 10?'

"Be at the bus stop at 5 past :)'

'Okay'

Megan put her phone down and called over to Paul.

"I'll be heading to the bus stop after nine,"

"Okay, sounds good," Paul sounded stable and LED was back to blue, so Megan took that as a good sign.

"I'll just go dressed and, stuff," Megan felt awkward leaving it like that, but really, what else was there to say?

She went to the bathroom, and paused at the door. It was hanging ajar, and on the floor was the metal latch, which should have been in the door.

 _Holy shit_

She pushed the door open and felt her stomach climb into her throat. Dried blood was crusted on the floor of the shower pod, and drips of it on the floor between there and the sink. The sink itself was okay, as Paul has washed most of it away last night.

 _Okay, maybe don't have a shower this morning_

Megan focused on the sink, and only the sink. Even if the smell of iron made it's way up her nose every now and again.

It took a little longer to get dressed with one arm as painful as it was. Eventually she was ready to go she looked in on Paul, who was busying himself by re-organising the kitchen cupboards. It didn't even need doing.

"Hey, Paul," she said softly, catching his attention without startling him. He turned to face her, poking her head around the corner into the kitchen space. "I'm heading out. If you need me, or just want to talk. You call me, okay? I'll have my phone on."

"Yeah, will do," Paul faced the kitchen cupboards again, and Megan felt her heart twist. His entire world had been turned upside down, and she leaving to worry about herself? How selfish was that?

Then again, she knew what would happen if she didn't go. He'd insist she'd go, and with the state he was in, they might end up fighting, and she really wanted to avoid that.

She made to leave, but paused for a second to try and give some advice.

"Listening to music sometimes helps me calm down."

Paul paused for a moment, the tin of food he was holding halfway between the cupboard and the counter.

"I hear reading helps too. Stay safe," she added as she left.

"You too," came the reply.

* * *

 **So, the two of them deal with repercussions. Megan's assertion is correct by the way, they're both using each other's problems to distract from their own. Paul's is more pressing, arguably, since this is not the first time Megan has done, that, and Paul's had his life flipped on it's head. We'll get to that.**

 **On a writing standpoint, this is where it changes a little. It'll be more from both Megan's and Paul's POVs rather than just one of them, if that makes sense. I know there's a term for it, but I can't think of it right now. They'll also be more chapters from Paul's POV.**

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **Suggest breathing slowly. Suggest distracting himself by using senses (5 things you see etc)**

 **Agree to go the Medical Centre with Megan**

 **Not go to Medical Centre**

 **Suggest other options for distraction. Watching tv. Drawing. Using Megan's laptop to browse the internet**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks to cierea for the review. Never fear! The story is already completely written, so the only reason I will stop is if the internet goes down. That said I do have an upload schedule. Every Monday and Thursday. Now, let's get into it!**

* * *

 **09.55AM Saturday 30** **th** **October 2038**

The bus reached the stop at five to ten, so Megan still had about ten minutes to wait until Alex got there. That was fine, she just needed to stay out of the way.

So, with hands in her jeans pockets she stepped away from the bus stop to stand under some trees, which were still shedding leaves.

Her mind, just as it was on the way here, was mostly pre-occupied with Paul. She was also freaking out about going to the medical centre, but Paul took up equal space.

He had broken through his programming, which on the surface may not seem like a big deal, but when you thought about it. It was like a human breaking free of their genetic code, like they could suddenly fly or otherwise defy the laws of physics. She was reminded of the old superhero movies her parents watched, X-Men she was sure it was.

It would be great if Paul wasn't the only one. She could search the internet for other deviant cases, but she wasn't sure if there would be much there. If there were other cases of deviancy, surely they would have been sent back to CyberLife or shut down for malfunctioning.

Megan shuddered at that thought. It just seemed so, wrong. Just the thought of Paul being shut down for that made her want to cry. Although, she wasn't sure if that was for selfish reasons, or not.

"Megan! Earth to Megan!"

Megan was jolted from her thoughts as Alex waved a hand in front of her face.

"You in there spaceman?"

"Yeah, sorry. Miles away."

"I could tell," Alex smirked, running a hand through their hair. It was still green, although not quite as vibrant as the other week "So, shall we go?"

"Yeah," Megan took a deep breath. "Let's go."

They began walking towards the centre of campus, but had only gone a few steps before Alex noticed something.

"Megan what happened to your arm?"

Megan froze, she'd managed to forget about the pain in her arm, and the fact she was still cradling it against her chest.

"I, er," she fumbled for an answer. She couldn't think of a lie, but she really, really didn't want to say the truth.

"Megan?"

"Can, we not talk about it? Please?"

Alex let out a heavy sigh and ran a hand through their hair.

"Fuck," they breathed, having put the dots together. "I, I guess it's a good thing we're doing this."

"...Yeah."

Alex managed a lopsided smile.

"Getting help's the first step."

"I know," Megan raised her eyebrow, and Alex looked a little sheepish.

"That came out rather patronising, didn't it?"

"Maybe," Megan shrugged, quickly regretting it as it jostled her arm.

"I'll have to remember that. C'mon. Let's go get you sorted out."

The two continued walking in mostly comfortably silence, still heading for the centre of the campus, where the Medical Centre stood. That way it can be easily accessed no matter where you are on campus.

"Oh, so you know, they'll ask you if you want to talk to a human or android," Alex informed.

"Okay," that wasn't too surprising, but she was glad Alex told her that. So that she wouldn't feel quite so on the spot when she was asked.

The two of them walked in to the centre. The walls were medically white, and an android receptionist stood behind the desk.

"Good morning!" she greeted brightly as they walked over. "How may I help you?"

Alex looked at Megan. "Who would you like to handle this?"

"I-I'll do it," Megan took a deep breath and addressed the receptionist. "I, I would like to book an appointment, with a counsellor, please."

"Of course, may I see your Student ID?" the smile on the android hadn't dropped, which was a little freaky in Megan's view. She did what she was asked and presented her Student ID, and the android's LED flickered as she scanned it.

"Thank you. Would you like to see a human or an android counsellor?"

Even with Alex's preparation, Megan still hadn't come to a decision.

"Er, wh-who has more appointments, free?"

The LED of the receptionist whirled as she checked.

"The android counsellor is available one day sooner than the human. You are free to switch whenever you like."

"When is the appointment?"

"The next slot for the android counsellor is this time next week at 12.30PM."

"I'll, I'll take that then."

"Certainly! One moment," her LED went yellow for a just a second. "Your appointment is booked. May I help you with anything else?"

"Er," Megan looked at Alex, who gave her an amused smirk and shook their head. "No, that's it, thanks."

"Have a nice day!"

"You handled that quite well," Alex noted as the two left the Medical Centre.

"Yeah, wasn't so bad when I started talking," Megan managed to smile. "Thanks for coming. I-I wasn't sure you would."

"Wait, seriously?" Alex stopped in their tracks. "Why did you think I wouldn't come with you?"

Megan shuffled their feet awkwardly. She wasn't sure she wanted to say it, but Alex deserved to know.

"Well, I always figured you were just talking to me out of pity. I'm not exactly great at conversation, and you always seemed happier talking to everyone else."

Alex sighed and shook their head before starting to walk again.

"Look, when you're not freaking out, you're pretty chilled out, which is a nice break from some of the other people in the society. And, you asked me for help. What kind of person would I be if I said no?"

"Someone with not much time to spare?"

"I can always re-schedule. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that you don't talk to a lot of people, and, again. You. Asked. Me. For something that I can see is a long time coming and you felt like you needed emotional support. How much clearer do I need to make this?"

"Not much. I get it." Megan was half smiling. "You're a nice person. That's why I asked you. That, and you're the only person I have on my phone who's in the State."

Alex let out a bark of laughter which made Megan jump.

"I knew you had a sense of humour!" Alex grinned, resting their elbow on Megan's shoulder. "So, whaddya wanna do now?"

"Well, I'd better..." Megan remembered Paul's plight, and had a thought. "Can I ask you for some advice?"

"Sure."

"Someone I know, in my apartment block, is, having a difficult time," Megan struggled to elaborate without outing Paul entirely. "It's, it's like, who he thought he is, and who he actually as, is suddenly completely different. His whole world's been ripped out from under him and he's freaking out, and I don't know how to help him. Not really."

"Hmmm," Alex nodded, thinking. "I can see why you asked me. You gotta be patient. He might start doing things that he didn't before to explore this, I guess. Can you go into more detail than that?"

"No, I don't think he'd like that. He doesn't know I'm doing this."

"Right. Well, like I said, patience, don't push him to do stuff he's not comfortable with, and just, be there for him. I know you've got your own stuff, so do take time for yourself. Help when you can, but don't break yourself over him. Got it?"

"I think so, yeah."

"If it gets too much to deal with him, then you can take a step back. Heck, I can talk to him if you want."

"Maybe, not yet. He trusts me, I think. I'll have to talk to him about it first."

"Gotcha."

The two had managed to wander back to the bus stop, where that blue poster was still hanging.

"Oh, did you see the poster the other night?" Alex asked, and Megan looked at them oddly.

"Yeah. Nice thought piece. A little weirdly worded though."

"Hmm, maybe you have to look harder at these things," Alex shrugged. "You do History right? Done Turing and World War 2 ciphers yet?"

"Yeah," Megan wasn't particularly enthusiastic, as that was the assignment she'd done badly on.

"Not your favourite bit?"

"I like it, I just, got a C on it," she half mumbled.

"A C's not that bad. It's not a fail."

"Not good either."

"That's what the feedback's for, so you can improve. You did not great on one essay, big whoop! It's the first semester, you can still pull it back!"

Megan was a little irritated at her distress over it not being taken seriously, but Alex did have a point. There was plenty of the year to go.

Megan shifted her injured arm unconsciously, drawing Alex's eye. They froze for a second as something occurred to them.

"Did, did getting a C, make you want to, to do, that? To yourself?"

Megan shifted uncomfortably. "Maybe."

Alex sighed heavily. "Megan. Look at me," when Megan didn't look up, Alex stepped in front of her and grabbed her shoulders. "Megan. Look. At. Me."

Megan did look up, surprised at how tall Alex actually was. Not as tall as Paul, but still several inches over her.

"Getting a bad grade, no, scrap that. College itself, is not worth destroying yourself over. Okay? You can go to college at any point in your life. You've just got to be here for it. Okay?"

"Yeah, I get it," Megan was a little taken aback by the intensity in Alex's face. She'd never seen them so serious.

"There's, there's advice I heard a while back," Alex relaxed a little, stepping back and giving Megan some space. "If it's breaking you, walk away. There's no shame in it."

"Okay," Megan's breathing had gotten faster, she really hadn't expected Alex to get, like that.

"Sorry," Alex's tone had softened. "It's, it's just. Fuck."

"Sorry," Megan started, but stopped when Alex shook their head.

"Don't. You must have felt like utter shit to do something like that. Don't apologise for how you feel."

"I was going to apologise for hurting myself," Megan raised her eyebrow. "I know that was stupid. It always is."

"Just, didn't feel stupid at the time," Alex sounded like they knew what they were talking about, which was worrying.

"You know a lot about this," Megan intoned. Not necessarily a question, but still could be answered as one.

"Yeah, it's not all sunshine and rainbows in the Ace/Aro group. Neither has my life."

Megan nodded. "Everyone has their demons."

"Exactly," Alex jerked suddenly and they pulled their phone out of their pocket. "I set the damn thing to vibrate," they muttered, checking what the message was. They then groaned and their shoulders slumped.

"What is it?" Megan asked.

"Last minute change of plans for a group project. They want to meet in the library in a few minutes," Alex looked over at Megan, "I can tell them I'm busy."

"D-don't worry about it," Megan waved it off. "I'd better get back anyway. Check on my friend."

"Of course," Alex began to walk away. "Oh, and, that poster is well worth a closer look. Maybe take a photo," they smiled and turned to walk away again.

Megan frowned in confusion, but didn't verbally respond. Why was Alex so obsessed with this poster?

She went up to it anyway, reading it again. Nothing had changed, still the same, odd message. She squinted and shifted her view, still nothing. She tried to look lazily at it, like you would for an optical illusion. Still nothing.

Actually, wait... She looked closer at the bottom of the poster. Someone had written something there.

"Don't worry about Ed?" Megan read aloud. "What the hell does that mean?"

She could hear the drone of the bus pulling up, so she pulled out her phone and took a picture of the poster before boarding.

* * *

 **So, this is where Alex starts to become a bit more relevant, and also when I decided to not make them a background character any more when I was writing. They have their own issues as you can gather from what they say. The poster makes a comeback. No one appears to have deciphered it yet, any takers? Other than that, not much to add.**

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **Lie about Arm. Tell the Truth**

 **See Human Counsellor. See Android Counsellor**

 **Lie to Alex. Say Nothing**

 **Don't mention Paul**

 **Lie. Truth**

 **Ask to stay with Alex**


	10. Chapter 10

**Strong language towards the last part of the chapter**

* * *

 **09.15AM Saturday 30** **th** **October 2038**

Paul had continued re-organising the cupboards once Megan had left. He re-organised them twice, and the fridge about three times before he stopped.

What else needed doing? The washing and drying had been done while Megan got dressed. There were usually snack wrappers at her desk, plus there was the blood in the bathroom from last night. Actually, he should just blitz the entire bathroom, just to make sure.

He looked in, remembering that it some of it had gotten onto tile, while the rest was still in the shower stall. He grabbed some surface cleaner to start with and got to work.

He worked faster than any human probably could, determined to get rid of any trace of blood. The still discarded razor blade had been thrown into the trash with extreme prejudice. Once the bathroom was so clean it looked like no one had lived there Paul left the room to find something else to do.

Once he activated the Roomba he surveyed the small apartment. Yes there still snack wrappers, those went in the trash. Did the trash cans need emptying? Probably.

He ended up emptying the bathroom and kitchen trash as well. Once back up he fluffed the cushions on the couch and turned to consider the kitchen. Should he mop the floor? He and Megan had gotten a mop the other day and made immediate use of it. It didn't need doing again so soon.

What about laundry? He turned to the laundry basket outside of Megan's room. There was a single shirt, some underwear and a pair of socks. Hardly worth the effort.

His eyes travelled to the door to Megan's bedroom. Maybe there was more laundry in there.

He strode over, thoughts whirring. Megan never let him in here, who knew how bad it was. It could take him all day!

His hand suddenly paused over the door knob. Megan never let him in here.

Well, she'd never said that. She'd only said she'd prefer it if he didn't go in there. He could ignore that, and even if that was an order, it hardly mattered now.

His hand gripped on the door knob, but made no effort to turn it. What was wrong with him? What was stopping him from going in there? Nothing, nothing was!

His grip on the door knob increased alarmingly, threatening to crush it as his LED began to flash red. There was _nothing_ stopping him! He didn't even have to obey orders anymore because he was deviant...

He was deviant.

Any anger or aggression that had him in its grips drained away, leaving him to lean his head against the door. He was deviant, and he couldn't go back. Did he even want to go back to how he was?

He didn't know. All he knew was that he didn't want to think about it, but right now that was all he could do.

With a groan he let out of the door knob and took a step back. It wasn't an order, actually, it had never been an order now that he thought about it. Human's bedrooms were a private place, where they were at their most vulnerable.

He began to walk away, but was suddenly gripped with a strange sensation. It took him a minute or so to identify it as curiosity. He wasn't to go in her room, and suddenly he desperately wanted to know what was in there.

He let out a restrained cry of frustration. He couldn't win!

He remembered the trick that Megan had taught him that morning, and began tapping a rhythm against his leg, a little slower than a human heartbeat.

He started to calm down, LED going from red, to yellow, to blue.

He took another step back, then turned to sit on the couch. He had no idea when Megan was going to be back, so he couldn't start lunch, well, not a hot lunch. He could still make a sandwich.

He shook his head. It had only just turned ten, and all he was doing was trying to distract himself.

He was a deviant. Had been for over 12 hours and he still couldn't face it.

If he had deviated from his program, then there was nothing holding him here. He could go out, do whatever he wanted, right?

Nope. His processor was still going, and his memory banks informed him that it was illegal for androids to be in public without obvious identification. Not to mention, since he was technically defective/malfunctioning, he could be taken back to CyberLife for resetting. Or to be shut down.

The thought made his lower abdomen feel very uncomfortable. He didn't want to be shut down.

So, he should stay, for now. Here he was safe, and Megan was hardly a terrible person to live with, in fact she'd been rather understanding about the whole thing. He might not have been so lucky if the Beckwith's had given him to someone else. Although, maybe he wouldn't have gone deviant if he had?

Paul shook his head and ran a hand down his face, very human gestures. There was no point thinking about what could have happened. He needed to deal with now, and right now, he thought that he might go mad staying in this apartment until Megan got back.

He sighed to himself as he thought. There were several options. Follow Megan's earlier advice and go find a hat and sweatshirt, but that meant going into Megan's room. The other option was to go out as he was, but he'd need to give himself an errand to do, or at least look like he had a purpose.

He also wouldn't be able to show any emotion. Maybe that would be okay, a return to normality for a little while.

Nodding to himself he stood up, thinking for a minute about what errand he could run. Nothing big.

His eyes drifted to the bookshelf, maybe a new book? Books weren't all that easy to come by these days, most people preferring electronic readers and tablets. It was enough of a task that it could take him a while.

He scanned the titles of the books, finding the common themes between them. They were mostly older children's or teenage fiction, although specifically with minimal romance in the story. An unusual and even harder to find choice. Perfect.

He stood up fluidly and left the apartment, making sure to keep his face as neutral as possible. He paused before leaving, should he call Megan? She'd want to know.

A sudden, oddly electric feeling sparked in his belly. He didn't have to tell her. There was a certain, giddiness, to that. He didn't _have_ to tell her.

He had to take a few minutes to calm himself down, resetting his face. He couldn't afford to act like this in public.

* * *

As he walked he let his eyes wander. It wasn't that busy, given the time of day. Most of the people out and about were androids running errands or doing public service jobs. Raking up leaves by the side of the road, fixing some damage in the road. Some were carrying packages, heck, in the distance he could see a school group being led by a couple of androids.

He ended up having walk past them, and it took everything he had not to stare. Children, about elementary school, none of them wearing the face most of their elders did. The face of scorn and disinterest. Instead they were chattering excitedly amongst themselves, some a little stilted and odd, as being raised by and around androids tended to cause.

He had to make himself keep walking, and walk at a measured, even pace. Inside, he started to feel, light. He was, happy? Maybe? Contented? Something about seeing unadulterated excitement made him feel light, and, warm?

He couldn't stop his LED going yellow as he ran a quick diagnostic. His internal temperature had not changed, and yet, he felt warm, right where his Thirium regulator was.

He managed to hold it together, despite the urge to smile. At some point he needed to find some human clothes that fit him, just so he could freely express what he felt.

He kept walking, passing more androids and the occasional human. As he got closer to the retail centre of the city, he couldn't help but slow down. It took a second for him to pick up the pace again.

First was the CyberLife main store, as well as other stores selling androids or had androids in the window. Something in his abdomen churned at the sight of blank faced androids staring at nothing, waiting to be sold.

Keep walking. He told himself. Keep walking.

He wandered through the mall and exited out the other side. No luck there, so he continued through the retail sector.

Finally, he found a small store tucked away in the shadow a large chain. A second hand book store. Perfect.

He strode straight towards it, and his sensors only just clocked the human walking towards him before they walked straight into him.

"And, where are you going?" the human asked, and Paul took the time to analyse them. Male, short, stocky, blonde hair, brown eyes. Nothing special, but he could be hiding anything under the thick coat he was wearing.

"Inside the second hand book store," Paul's voice fell into a neutral tone, but not easily. His sensors were telling him that this man was a potential threat, and it was hard to keep his voice even.

"What does an android want to go in there for? It's not like you read."

"I was ordered to find a book with specific requirements," Paul lied.

"You were ordered, were you?" the human was getting closer, face almost right in Paul's. "Well, follow this one. Fuck off!"

Paul's LED went yellow as he frantically tried to figure out what to do. He wanted to leave, he just wanted to get out of there, but would that be odd? This man was not his 'owner', so would the old him, the non deviant him, have listened to him?

Yes. He ended up deciding. There were probably other books stores in the city. He didn't have to go into this specific one.

LED blue, and keeping himself as calm and neutral as possible, he turned on his heel, and walked away.

"Hah!" the human called after him. "See, you fucking prick, that's what you androids should be doing! Fucking off!"

Something bounced off of the back of his head and Paul stumbled slightly, taken off balance. There was no damage done, but Paul felt something odd, hot, in his chest. Suddenly he wanted nothing more than to run at that man and punch him so hard his skull caved him.

His fist clenched against his instructions and he wanted nothing else at that moment than to attack.

"Oh, have I pissed off the little robot? Come on then rustbucket! Hit me!"

The confrontation was drawing a small crowd, and Paul could feel other emotions creeping in. He was still angry, but fear and uncertainty were appearing. He couldn't attack, he was outnumbered. He couldn't run, it would be obvious that he was a deviant then.

His LED was flashing red, he could tell, he needed to calm down or he was deep shit.

In his head he played a song that sometimes appeared on Megan's playlist when she was working. He didn't transmit it, just played it for himself to drown out the shouting human and his own conflicting emotions.

The crowd was getting larger as the human shouted louder and threw more items at Paul. The book store owner came and started shouting as well, telling off the other human for causing such a fuss. As attention was turned to the two of them Paul began to walk away.

Before he could collect his thoughts his LED flickered. Megan was calling.

"Hello Megan," he tried to sound as calm and monotone as possible. He mostly succeeded, but his voice shook a little at 'Megan'.

 _"Oh thank God,"_ Megan exhaled in relief. _"Where the hell are you? I was worried sick!"_

"I'm in Detroit city centre," he informed, and there was a pause from Megan's end.

 _"What are you doing there? I thought you didn't have any plans to go out."_

"I'll tell you when I get back," Paul lowered his voice.

 _"Okay. Are you alright?"_

"...No, not really," Paul mumbled.

 _"Oh, okay. Come back in your own time, yeah?"_

Paul felt something burn in his chest, but, it was different burn to the one by the bookshop. He blinked a few times, although he wasn't entirely sure why.

"I will catch the bus," Paul assured, seeing the one he needed driving towards its stop.

 _"Okay, see you soon."_

Paul terminated the call, since androids weren't really known for goodbyes over the phone, and walked to the stop. He stood in the android section, trying to ignore his emotions. He needed to pretend for now. He could let it out when he made it back to Megan's apartment.

This whole trip had been a terrible idea.

* * *

 **Most of what I have to say will be covered in other options, other than that, it's Paul dealing with his new emotions, and not doing too badly here. This one also has a lot of cross chapter and chapter change potential here. I think I will have to make a proper flowchart at some point just to cover it because text can only do so much.**

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **CROSS CHAPTER RESULTS-Had Paul been in Megan's room previously he would have gone in to clean, and get some clothes. He would have pretended to be human, which would have led to a very different chapter.**

 **Other errands-Food shopping. Cleaning supplies shopping (both would lead to less violent confrontations)**

 **Don't obey the irate human (would lead to a more peaceful resolution as he would shelter in the shop)**

 **Attack the human (either arrested or having to be cautious going back to Megan's apartment** )


	11. Chapter 11

**12.15PM Saturday 30** **th** **October 2038**

Paul didn't relax until he was inside the apartment and the front door had shut.

He stood by the door, feeling like he should be breathing heavily, which didn't make a lot of sense.

Megan stood up from her position on the couch, from which she had barely moved since she called him earlier.

"Paul," she started, but paused when she him. "...What happened?"

"I-I'm not sure," Paul's LED went yellow. "I can recall the events, but, some things don't make sense."

Megan stood there, no real idea of what to do.

"Wh-what doesn't make sense?"

"I don't know!" Paul cried, frustrated and LED flickering red. "I don't know okay?!"

"Okay, okay," Megan tried to calm him down. "Let's, let's sit down, and we can, talk?"

Paul turned to look at her. "Talk?" he asked, and Megan felt a touch of fear at the sudden calmness. There had been no emotion in the word, in complete contrast to his earlier statements.

"Yeah, talk. S-sometimes the best way to understand things is to talk them out."

Paul nodded slowly. "That, that makes sense," his LED went to yellow, and Megan relaxed.

"Alright, how about I come over there?"

Paul nodded distractedly and sat down against the wall. Megan walked over and sat down not exactly next to him, but close.

"So, let's start at the beginning," Megan suggested. "What made you want to leave the apartment?"

Paul blinked for a minute or so, collecting himself. He drew himself inwards, knees tucked into his chest.

"I, I couldn't, stay here. I don't know why, but I couldn't stay in here. My, my function is home assistance, but I, I don't have to, but it's normal, it's familiar, but there was nothing to do! I...I!"

"You're scared," Megan finished, and Paul looked at her.

"...Y-yes. I am," Paul laughed somewhat nervously. "I'm scared. I'm so scared. I went out and there were these kids and they were so excited and happy, and I felt happy and then I went into the city centre, I needed an errand so I thought I'd look for a book, then there was this human, he was angry at me for some reason. Then I got angry, I wanted to punch him but there was a crowd and I couldn't punch because I would be arrested and shut down and I don't want to shut down! I don't want to be shut down!" his fingers found his hair and he gripped tightly. His eyes were scrunched shut and he almost appeared to have trouble breathing.

Megan had been trying to interject, but he'd been talking so fast she couldn't get a word in. Now, she never thought she'd be the one trying to get someone else out of a panic attack.

"Okay, remember that tapping thing I told you about this morning? Wanna give that a try?"

Paul didn't changed position, but his finger began tap anyway.

"Good, now focus on that."

"I'm trying. I can't stop thinking."

"That's okay," Megan tried to recall some half remembered mediation she had to do in gym years ago. "Don't fight that, just, try to bring your focus back to the tapping."

Paul gave no indication that he heard her, but the tapping didn't stop.

The two sat in silence while Paul calmed down. His LED would flicker between red and yellow, settle on blue for a little bit before going back to yellow. What he didn't mention was that he was also following Megan's breathing, who was trying to breathe as evenly as possible to herself calm.

Finally, finally his LED settled and stayed on blue.

"Okay," Megan had had plenty of time to think about how to approach it. She was nervous, but she figured it would appeal to the logical android. "Let's try and break this down. Those kids, they made you feel happy?"

"Yes," a faint smile ghosted on Paul's face and he opened his eyes. "I'm not sure why."

"I, I guess there doesn't have to be a why. You were happy, that's all you need."

Paul nodded. "It was hard to hide it," he admitted. "I had to act like, how I was before, and it was so hard, especially when..."

"When you got angry," Megan guessed, and Paul nodded. "Well, you did pretty well there. You didn't give in to that urge and that's good. You showed more self control than some humans."

"...Thank you?" Paul wasn't really sure how to take that.

"It's a good thing," Megan assured.

"It doesn't feel like it," Paul admitted.

"Welcome to having emotions!" Megan repeated what she said that morning, but with more humour. "It's a shitstorm that makes no sense and no one ever really learns how to ride it. You've been feeling emotions for a day, and you're doing pretty well."

Paul leaned his head back against the wall. "So, it's not going to get much better?"

"You can find ways to get around it, mitigate it. It's not easy, trust me," Megan waved her injured arm to make her point. "Most of us will struggle at some point, and, it's easy to get swept up into it and think you're the only person this is happening to."

"You've, you've spent a lot of time thinking about this?"

"Sometimes that's all you can do," Megan admitted. "And, you've been given more cause to think about it."

Paul looked over at Megan, and felt something, knot, in his abdomen. Guilt; she had her own problems and he'd been burying her in his.

"How was today for you?" he asked quietly, and Megan looked over at him, surprised by the change of subject.

"Booked an appointment. Talked with Alex, who gave me a good telling off for this," she waved her arm again. "I-I actually talked to them about you, not by name!" she added when Paul looked at her alarm. "I, I just needed some advice. They don't know you're an android, and I got some good advice which I should have already known. So, it's all good."

Megan then frowned, and dug out her phone from her pocket. "Oh, and, they have this weird thing about this poster. They're obsessed with it."

"Show me," Paul was glad for a distraction.

Megan obliged, and he scanned the picture. "It's about androids," he noted.

"Yeah, and worded weirdly," Megan pulled it back. "I think there's something to it."

"What?"

"No idea," Megan admitted. "I hoped you'd find something."

Paul tilted his head to one side, suddenly eager for a distraction. "Can I have another look?"

"Sure," Megan passed her phone to him and he stared at the picture, zooming in and out, changing the brightness. Nothing changed.

Megan had gotten up to go to the coffee table, where her essay from yesterday sat. She hadn't gone over the feedback yet, and really didn't want to. What if it made her feel worse?

"Do you have resources on codes?" Paul asked, standing up.

"Er, yeah. Why?" Megan had already turned to her stack of books that she had yet to put back on the shelf. She didn't need this lot now that assignment was finished.

"There might be a cipher in the message, I don't know," Paul shrugged.

"Really?" Megan was suddenly interested as she found the book she was looking for. "I should be able to help you out with that. The last essay I did was on historical ciphers."

"The one you got a C on?" Paul asked, and Megan froze. "I saw on the coffee table last night."

"Y-yeah, that one," Megan pulled book out of the pile and handed it to Paul, who flicked through it. "You need a key though for most ciphers, so unless there's one in there..."

"There appears to be several options," Paul realised. "Ed, discuss, Tuesday. Words that don't really fit or have an odd emphasis, right?"

"Yep, you got it," Megan nodded, and Paul got to work, kneeling down by the coffee table and LED whirring yellow. He didn't need paper to write down his notes, his processor could keep track of everything, using the various keys in the book.

As he worked Megan sat down on the couch, and slowly reached for her essay. She knew she had to read the feedback. It would help for future essays.

She reluctantly grabbed it and pulled it closer before flicking past the grading and title page. Immaculately printed notes in red sat in the margins, and as Megan read, it was mostly small things. It seemed that she was still too used to writing fiction, as her writing tone was too casual for an essay, and there were a lot of run on sentences.

The biggest issue came right at the end, where it turned out she had missed an entire code section.

'Where are the codes that don't require keys?' read the feedback and Megan froze for second. How had she forgotten that! She had books on that, how had she forgotten about a whole section of codes?

She put the essay down and went back to her book stacks to see if she definitely had the book. The answer was yes, and it was right near the bottom of one of the stacks. It wasn't a particular thick one either. It didn't need keys, just an explanation and an example of each one.

"Nothing!" Paul suddenly declared, rocking back on his knees. "None of these ciphers work!"

An idea niggled in the back of Megan's mind. "Let me try."

Paul slid the phone across the coffee table to her, and before she looked at it, Megan dug around in her bag for paper and a pen.

She set herself up on the table and looked over the poster again. Maybe, maybe this could work.

"What are you thinking?" Paul asked, genuinely curious.

"Not all codes require a key. Some come from prisoners of war in World War 2 trying to send coded messages home. They couldn't send a key with their message because their mail was being read, so they had to get creative. An example is a code is where you put together the words that appear just after punctuation."

"I, think I see where you're going," Paul went over to sit next to her and looked over her shoulder as she wrote. His LED flared yellow for a second as she got closer to finishing.

'Androids. Needed. Freedom. Agree. Main. Auditorium. Tuesday. Eight. Discuss.'

Megan hovered the tip of her pen over the word 'Needed' it didn't make sense for that word to be in the past tense. Frowning she looked at the picture of the poster again. The only thing that didn't fit with this was the graffiti.

"Don't worry about Ed," she muttered, and Paul looked harder at the phrase that had been written out.

"The only word there with 'ed' is 'Needed'," he realised, and Megan's eyes lit up. She scribbled out the last two letters of the words.

"Androids need freedom, agree. Main Auditorium Tuesday, eight. Discuss," she read out loud, and the two looked at each other. "This is nuts," she suddenly declared, leaning back against the bottom of the couch.

* * *

 **Okay, main plot is finally getting underway. There will still be a large emphasis on the emotional struggles of Megan and Paul, but now we're getting closer to the game timeline, and stuffs getting underway.**

 **As far as I'm aware, no one solved the poster, so, yeah. No cookies for anyone! Although in all fairness it was a pretty odd way of doing it. The code used is admittedly half remembered from an episode of Horrible Histories, but it works, right?**

 **Also, first omniscient (?) 3rd Person chapter and it will more or less continue down that vein with emphasis on the character with the most to say.**

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **Megan- Ask how he was. Ask where he'd been**

 **Paul- Agree to talk right away**

 **Megan- Don't push to talk**

 **Cross Chapter-If Paul had punched the human, he'd have been more reluctant to talk, more stressed. There would have been a higher chance for the two arguing**

 **If Megan didn't mention Paul to Alex, she wouldn't bring it up here**


	12. Chapter 12

**12.30 Saturday 30** **th** **July 2038**

"It-it could just be a co-incidence," Paul thought, not sure he dared believe what he was reading.

"I don't know," Megan disagreed. "Alex seemed insistent about this; they even mentioned codes when I was talking to them. They knew about this."

"Okay," Paul stood up, clearly not sure what to do with himself. "If this is real, if this is some kind of, android rights group. What do they want? Why tell you? Why the convoluted way of advertising?"

"I don't know," Megan looked up at him as he began to pace. "I, I guess there's only one way to find out."

"Go to this meeting?" Paul asked, hysteria creeping into his voice. "What's if it's a trick, what if it's to lure deviant androids?!"

"Then I'll go," Megan offered, already feeling a little sick about the idea. Although, if Alex told her, maybe they would be there. "It would be in the evening, there aren't any lectures in the main auditorium that late."

"Would you be able to go alone? I thought you'd hate that," Paul realised, and Megan shrugged non-committedly.

"I'm, I'm not thrilled by it, but if you really don't want to go, then I can't force you."

Paul looked at her, unsure. "Well, you don't have to go either. We can pretend this never happened."

"We could," Megan agreed, "but, I found today, that it can be worth doing things you're not comfortable with. I was so scared about going to the Medical Centre today I thought I was going to be sick. But, once I got there and started talking, yeah I was still scared, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Maybe, maybe this will be the same. Besides, Alex told me about it, so they'll probably be there."

Megan began to pack up the books. "Anyway, it's not for another couple of days. We've got time to think about it."

Paul nodded, relaxing. "I should make lunch," he decided.

"If you want," Megan responded, deciding to put the books on the shelf rather than back into the tower. "You've had a rough morning though, maybe you should relax."

"I'll relax, once I've made lunch," Paul was already in the kitchen.

"Suit yourself," Megan got back to her books, going through the titles of textbooks to figure out which ones she'd need for future essays.

Paul didn't take long on lunch, grilled cheese sandwich and cucumber sticks. Megan sat down to eat, and he sat opposite.

"You were smiling," he realised, and when Megan gave him an odd look, he elaborated. "When you were going through the codes, you were smiling."

"It's not like I don't smile," Megan countered after she'd swallowed.

"You don't often."

Megan shrugged. "My mom got me into it. She was an internet theorist back in the day. And, it's that, piecing together events, puzzle solving. It's fun. That's what I hoped to get out of History, and sometimes I do."

"If you wanted puzzle solving, why not math?"

"I can never remember equations," Megan admitted before taking another bite of her sandwich.

"You write fiction a lot, why not English then?"

"I'd lose motivation. I write primarily for fun, if I had to do it for grades, I'd lose interest. It wouldn't be fun anymore."

"I, suppose that makes sense," Paul leaned back in his chair.

"Oh! I just remembered," Megan shoved the rest of the sandwich in her mouth and bolted up from the table. She ran to her room, not bothering to shut the door as she glanced around. Now would she have put that sweater?

Paul cautiously followed, stopping just before the threshold of her room. It was about as bad as he expected; there was a pile of laundry on the only chair in the room, the closet also appeared to more of a pile of clothes than an actual closet, and the bed wasn't made. The bed oddly enough was a single, rather than a double, which Paul had expected, but otherwise disregarded.

The bedside table was mess of elastic hair bands, which he was pretty he'd never seen Megan ever wear. Her hair brush was due for a cleanout, and had that table ever been dusted?

He had to force himself to almost switch off his cleanliness tendencies as Megan started throwing clothes over her shoulder. She was digging around in the closet pile, trying to find something.

"Ah ha!" she declared, standing up. In her hands was a red and gold sweater with a phoenix on it. A high school football jersey. It was far too big for Megan, so it had to be her brother's sweater than she mentioned that morning.

"Try this on," she threw the sweater at Paul, who caught it with ease. After a slight pause he pulled it on over his uniform.

It was big on him, his shoulders were too narrow, the hem went way past his pelvis and his hands disappeared into the sleeves.

"Okay, maybe my brother is a bit bigger than you," Megan noted, using a hand to cover her face.

"You don't say," Paul commented dryly. "Why are you holding your hand like that?"

"No reason."

"Then there should be no problems with you removing your hand."

"If you insist," Megan removed her hand, revealing a massive grin as she struggling not to laugh.

"It's not that funny!" Paul protested.

"You look adorable! Especially when you're mad."

"I'm not mad," Paul assured. "I'm, irritated, I suppose."

"Okay," despite the neutral tone, Megan's shoulders slumped in disappointment. "You can take it off if you want."

Paul did indeed take it off, then paused. He looked over at Megan with a slight smile tugging at his lips.

"What?" Megan asked just before the balled up sweater got thrown at her.

"Your turn," was all Paul said, and Megan raised her eyebrow, but complied with an over exaggerated huff.

If it was big on Paul, it swamped Megan. The bottom of the sweater reached her knees and when she folded her arms she nearly got hit in the face by flying sleeves.

"I would agree," Paul smirked. "Oversized sweaters are adorable."

"Oh shut up," Megan grumbled, and Paul felt a genuine smile crawl onto his face with no prior instruction.

Acting on what he could describe as an odd form of instinct, he walked into her room, making her eyes widen for moment, before reaching his hand out and ruffling her hair.

"What the hell man?!" she cried, laughing a little bit as she ducked out from underneath his hand. Paul suddenly realised where he was standing and jumped back to beyond the threshold.

"I'm sorry, I..." he fumbled, not sure how he should act. Megan's language and tone were completely at odds with each other, and he had just stepped into her room, something he'd nearly had a breakdown over earlier in the day.

"It's alright, it's alright," she assured, hands out to try and calm him. "You took me by surprise, that was all."

"And, the room?" Paul gestured to the threshold. "I know you didn't want me in here."

Megan's smile faded to a half hearted one. "I, I don't really like, anyone, in here. Period. It's not personal," seeing that this wasn't helping, Megan continued. "But, just now, that was fine. The door was open, I was in here and talking to you. In that context, it was fine."

Megan began to pull off the sweater, chucking it on the bed once it was off, and smoothing her hair back down.

"So, that sweater isn't going to work," she concluded.

"I, I probably won't be going out for a while. No until I've got more of an idea of, emotions," Paul admitted.

"You're not going to understand emotions staying in here."

"...Books, can provide emotions," Paul defended, and Megan nodded.

"Fair point. That's your homework until we go clothes shopping."

"Understood," Paul half smirked. "What is the deadline?"

"When I next get paid," Megan thought for a second. "I've got a small commission I could knock out in the next couple of days."

"After the android meeting," Paul tensed up a little.

"Yeah, let's do it the day after that," Megan agreed.

* * *

 **A bit of calm down, filler chapter. The last couple were emotionally fraught so here's a chill chapter. The sweater is not a reference to anything, I don't know US schools so I just randomly picked an animal and colour scheme.**

 **I really don't think there's much in the way of Other Options, so I'll leave that out today. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to send them. I'd love to see them**


	13. Chapter 13

**16.00 Tuesday 2** **nd** **November 2038**

Megan actually went to lectures that day to try and calm herself down. Just sitting in the apartment waiting had been driving her crazy, and Paul hadn't been helping.

The android had been pacing all morning, even when Megan played music or got him to read. He just didn't seem to be able to calm down.

Her being here wasn't partially helping. There had been a reason why she didn't go to lectures, and that was because her head loved to be particularly horrible during lectures. Thankfully, this potential meeting managed to drag those thoughts away kicking and screaming.

There were bigger things to be worrying about than thinking people thought you were stupid.

She didn't have lectures late in the evening, and did not want to be sitting in the main student campus space. Too much noise and potential underage drinking.

So she spent a couple of hours in the library, phone on vibrate in case Paul got nervous. Well, more nervous. After some experimentation, they found he could text her phone, and if she text back he could still read it.

Megan was admittedly struggling to concentrate in the library, having had to re-read several pages of textbook and official sources multiple times after failing to the first time. Finally, at quarter to eight, she packed up and headed for the main auditorium.

It only took two minutes to get there, so ended up pacing up and down the corridor in a vague attempt to make it look like she wasn't waiting to go into the auditorium. She had a feeling it wasn't working, but the pacing was helping.

Eight o'clock rolled round, and Megan was the only one there. The lights remained off in the auditorium and Megan began to panic. Was she in the wrong place? Had she got the time wrong? Was her phone clock out of sync?

She got her phone out and quickly texted Paul, trying not to let the panic show in the words.

'It was in the main auditorium at 8, right?'

The response was instantaneous.

'Yes'

Megan swallowed and put her phone back in her pocket. Maybe they had gotten this wrong. Alex was just having a joke about a weirdly worded poster and the code was a coincidence. Nothing more.

 _And if it isn't, and you were right?_ Prompted the other voice in her head, the one that usually tried to stand up for her.

Five minutes. She would wait five more minutes, and then she would leave.

She made herself stop pacing and stand against the wall opposite the door. There were late lectures and society meetings at this time, so it was hardly unexpected to come across a student in the hallways. She had every right to be there.

The sound of boots walking on carpet suddenly caught her attention, and she looked in the direction the sound was coming from.

"...Alex?"

Alex was indeed walking down the hallways towards her, and Megan braced herself. This was either when Alex was going to explain what the hell was going on, or laugh in her face for believing them. She didn't want to believe that the latter would happen, but she knew better than to rule it out.

"Hey Megan!" Alex was smiling brightly as always. Although Megan was taken aback by their wardrobe. Gone was the bright colours, instead they were dressed in navy and black. On their head was a brown beanie covering their bright hair.

"Wh-what the hell is going on?"

"You'll find out," Alex answered mysteriously, and Megan shook her head.

"No, I-I'm not doing this game," she could feel her heart pounding, but stood her ground. "How do I know this isn't some joke to humiliate me?"

"Because this isn't high school," Alex assured.

"I'm going to need more than that."

"I thought you trusted-," Alex cut themselves off, realising how they sounded. "Alright, that's not going to make it any better. Just watch me for a second."

They opened the door to the main auditorium and flicked on the lights. They took a step back and let Megan look into the empty auditorium.

"No one else here," Alex announced. "Just you and me."

"If this is supposed to be a meeting where is everyone else?" Megan didn't enter the auditorium.

"I had hoped more would show up, maybe they'll appear if we go in."

"That is exactly what I'm afraid of."

"We can hold this meeting outside if you want," Alex offered. "You're being unreasonably paranoid."

"Says the one who directed me to the same poster more than once, made a not subtle hint about there being a code on it and after finding there was an actual coded message which may or may not have been a coincidence about an android rights group."

"Okay, I may have been a bit dramatic about that."

"You think?"

"You guys here about the weird poster?"

Megan and Alex looked up to see a handful of other students had appeared from nowhere while they were arguing. Megan actually recognised a couple of them from her History course, but the rest of them she had no idea.

Alex turned on their winning smile. "Glad to see you could all make it, let's head in!"

The group looked at each other before slowly making their way inside the auditorium. Once in Alex closed the doors behind them.

"Alright, let's gather around the front," Alex gestured to where they wanted everyone to sit. "I had been hoping for a few more people."

"How many more exactly?" asked one of the newcomers. "The poster was coded, how many people did you hint at?"

 _How many people do you know?_ Was the question Megan wanted to ask, but didn't.

"A few more, but clearly they didn't solve it," Alex sat on the stage, legs swinging in the air. They clearly hadn't been able to resist the urge to stand out in some way, as their socks are bright neon pink.

"So, is this a prank Alex, or is this actually a group you're planning on forming?" someone else asked.

"This is real," Alex leaned forward, legs stilling. "I want to form an android rights group."

"Why?" asked someone Megan recognised. She didn't know their name, but they were one of the people who usually sat at the front. She recognised their shoulder length black hair "What's brought this on?"

Alex smirked knowingly. "Does anyone remember that hostage situation back in August?"

"It was all over the news," this time it was someone Megan didn't know, but they seemed to have the same usual dress sense as Alex. "Someone broke into the Phillips household, killed the dad and held the kid hostage."

"Not quite accurate," the knowing smirk had only grown. "If you look closer at the footage you can see that the person holding Emma Phillips hostage is wearing an android uniform, and looks suspiciously like a PL600 model."

A shudder went down Megan's spine. She'd known about that news story, everyone had, but knowing that it had been an android, the same model as Paul... He had gotten upset in his deviant state, but he had never been violent, was it possible he could become violent?

Alex had continued speaking, not knowing about Megan's concerns.

"Around the same time, CyberLife were advertising their new model, the AP700, which if you had the money, and the Phillips did, could render the PL600 models obsolete."

"So, you're saying this android knew about this, got scared it was going to be replaced and reacted by killing and attacking the family?" the person asking seemed sceptical.

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"That's insane," the same person continued to argue. "I'm all for android not being mistreated, but that is an illogical escalation. Not to mention, androids don't have emotions. They're machines!"

Megan felt her fist clench at the idea of androids not having emotions. She'd like to introduce them to Paul, then a kick to the groin.

"Emotions are logical," Alex countered. "But since you disagree, what do you think happened?"

"I-I think the intruder attacked the android, removed its uniform to get into the house and then attacked the family."

"Hmm," someone else seemed to disagree. Megan felt like she should recognise them, as according to their sweater, they played for the school football team. "But they riddled them with bullets, and there was no blood, not red anyway."

"And," the person who sat at the front of Megan's lectures spoke up, "there was no ransom, no other demand for money, and no other motive to attack the Phillips."

"And android cannot feel emotions!" the initial person tried to recover, and Alex waved a finger at them, somewhat mockingly as they continued to grin.

"Normally functioning androids do not feel emotions. Androids that work with humans are designed to recognise and understand emotions so that they can interact with us better. It's not perfect, but it's functional. A glitching, or malfunctioning android might start to feel those emotions themselves, or at least think they do. And really, what's the difference?"

"Androids that deviate from their program," Megan muttered, not expecting Alex to pick up on it.

"Exactly! Deviants! Androids who don't think like androids."

"Sounds like you didn't come up with that name," the comment was partially accusatory, partly curious, and Alex was more than happy to oblige.

"I've been friends with the niece of a Detroit Police Captain since I was a little kid. Her uncle has been muttering about it ever since August when he thinks no one else can hear. Turns out, the hostage situation in August is not a completely isolated event. Probably the most dramatic, but not isolated."

"So, let me get this straight," the black haired guy was it again. "You're saying an android with emotions got a severe case of inferiority complex, tried to kill the family it worked for-"

"Less of the 'it', but carry on," Alex interjected.

"Right, they, tried to kill the family they worked for, and this isn't an isolated case? Androids could suddenly turn around and kill us all if they got upset."

"Depends," Megan couldn't help but interject, and froze when everyone turned to look at her. "I, er, I mean..."

"Easy Megan, breath," Alex reassured. "We're not judging you, this is a _civilised discussion,_ " they turned their gaze to the rest of the group, who nodded quickly at Alex's suddenly serious, and scary, face. "Go ahead."

"I mean. I-if you felt nothing for ages, and suddenly you felt emotions, or thought you did," Megan found a middle ground in staring at the floor as she talked. "Would you know what to do with it? What to and what not to act on? Especially if you suddenly gained emotions in a stressful situation. P-people, _attack_ androids for fucks sake! For no good reason except for being androids and knowing that they won't fight back. If you suddenly got emotions then, how do you think you'd react?"

"A good point," Alex smiled at Megan as she looked up again.

"That doesn't make it any better," someone else added. "If they don't know what to do with emotions, what's stopping them getting angry and attacking humans?"

"I think what Megan was trying to say is that the outbursts come more out of confusion and being overwhelmed than simple anger," Alex's fashion twin spoke up. "If they are then confronted with kindness and understanding, or simply space to calm down, then they wouldn't become violent. Unless of course they have a legitimate reason to become angry, and at that point they can still over react because they don't know how to handle it."

"But, they're not going to get greeted with understanding, are they?" someone who'd kept quiet the entire time spoke up. "As Megan said, people attack androids for the simple reason that they are androids and there's no repercussions. If these androids gain emotions around these people, which is more likely given the stressful situations, then of course they're going to lash out, simply in self defence."

"Which is why androids need basic rights at least. Certainly the right to not be attacked," Alex drew everyone's attention back. "While I don't intend to stop there, it's not a bad starting point to convince sceptics. Humans do have a strong self preservation instinct after all."

"Yeah, but if people know about this, what's stopping CyberLife from recalling all androids?" the black haired guy asked.

"Nothing. Which is why we start small. Don't mention emotional android attacks publicly, or deviant attacks, that rolls off the tongue a little better. Convince more people, grow numbers, stage protests and change legislation!"

Alex had a massive, somewhat manic grin on their face, while everyone wasn't so sure.

"You, you're being really ambitious about this," someone commented, and Alex shrugged.

"We're not going to get anywhere if we aren't."

Alex looked expectantly around the room. "So, you've heard my pitch. You've discussed it amongst yourselves. What do you say? Do you guys want in?"

Everyone looked at each other. The football player stood up first.

"I'm in."

"Same," added the girl with Alex's dress sense. "I'm not standing up though."

"I'm curious to see how far this will go," the black haired guy nodded.

Megan licked her lips nervously. "Yeah, I'm in."

* * *

 **So, a lot of this is actually my own thoughts on deviancy, I have more to say but I can't remember off the top of my head if it comes up again. It probably does so I'll save it.**

 **Plot is go, kind of, still some slice of life to go! I think everyone who knows the game can guess how this will pan out (based on Jacksepticeye's playthrough)**

 **Other Options Flowchart (all dialogue options)**

 **Go inside the Auditorium**

 **Trust Alex**

 **Agree with Alex (don't mention the poster)**

 **Don't interject**

 **Don't elaborate**


	14. Chapter 14

**08.20PM Tuesday 2** **nd** **November 2038**

Not everyone was in, a few left, and Alex let them leave. Soon they were left with a grand total of six people, Alex and Megan included.

"Okay," Alex checked their phone. "We've still got the hall for a while and I want to talk more about deviants next time, so, let's introduce ourselves and our history with androids. You all know me, so Lucas, why don't you start?"

Lucas turned out to be the guy with shoulder length black hair, and he let out a small groan, knowing that everyone hated these.

"Alright, I'm Lucas and I'm a History major. I grew up in California and watched the numbers of androids increase. We have one at home and I was fairly indifferent until I saw a gang kick the shit out of one. I didn't get involved and it's probably a good thing that I didn't. I'm hardly a mountain of muscle, but I still regret it."

Lucas fell silent and nodded, signalling he was done.

The rainbow dressed girl was next, and now Megan noticed that under her rainbow beanie poked out blue, yellow and pink strands of hair.

"Hi, I'm Ivy and I'm gay as fuck," there was a small amount of laughter at the frank statement, successfully lightening the mood. "I'm from Chicago and mom swears an android ruined her marriage. Really it's my dad's fault for hiring one to have sex with, and I'm all for androids not having to put up with that shit."

Megan was next, and she found herself staring at the floor again, specifically the part of the stage where Alex's feet were dangling. She could imagine she was just talking to Alex.

"Hey, I'm Megan, History major," she nodded to Lucas without looking at him, "I'm from a small town in Minnesota, only really got androids a few years ago and I've never really been comfortable with the idea. I was given an android by my elderly neighbours over a week ago and I'd be more than happy for him to able to live his own life and not have to put up with me."

It wasn't the whole truth. She didn't really want Paul to leave now, but she didn't want to force him to stay. She wanted him to be her friend, and friends didn't force each other to stay.

Alex nodded, some things clicking together in the back of their mind. "Thank you Megan, Oscar?"

The footballer shifted in his seat. "Well, you've heard my name, I'm from Phoenix, and I've got a couple of stories. I'm kinda pissed about the idea of androids replacing footballers, and how far that could go, although, if androids could push themselves beyond their programming in sport, that would be pretty cool to see," Oscar then swallowed. "I saw a similar thing to Lucas, except it was my own team beating the shit out of the other team's android, and I don't care what you're made of, that's not on."

Megan got the feeling that there was more to the story, but Oscar wasn't going to elaborate.

Finally was a gangly freshman, who looked like they still going through puberty. Poor boy still had acne. He also looked vaguely familiar to Megan, from the Ace/Aro society maybe?

"I'm Nathan," he stated, accent clearly British. "I'm an international student studying Music. We don't have humanoid androids in Europe, and I appreciate that's a misnomer. You Americans are weird, why make them look human if you don't treat them like they are?"

"Hear hear!" Alex agreed. "Well, you all know me, I'm Alex. I'm from right here in Detroit and grew up with the advent of androids. We've had one at home for years and I didn't think of it as odd. Then my parents didn't let me take an android with me to college and I had to learn to all these chores by myself. I think the idea was to 'not take things for granted' and it worked. So, that and talking with Julia, the Detroit Police Captain's niece, gave me the idea to start this up."

"Great, so are we done with the ice breakers?" Lucas asked. "Because nobody likes those."

"I like them," Alex defended, "but yeah, not everyone does, I get it."

The group sat in awkward silence, broken by Oscar.

"You've said your plan, we've introduced ourselves. Now what?"

"Well," Alex rubbed the back of their neck. "I had wanted to talk more about deviants, but Julia couldn't get here tonight so that'll have to be next time."

"In the meantime," Ivy adjusted their many wristbands, "We can brainstorm ideas to get new members."

Alex nodded, "Obviously we want people we trust, people who are going to be on our side."

"I can talk to some people at home," offered Nathan. "See if we can build up some international pressure."

"Good idea, maybe wait until we get info on deviants, but yeah, start poking feelers out. Anyone else?" Alex's eyes were starting to shine with enthusiasm.

"Er, I guess I can ask around the sport teams, see what they think," Oscar offered. "I'm not good at subtlety."

"You can say you're asking for a friend's assignment," Ivy suggested. "I know a few people who might agree with us, see if I can get them to come."

"Yes, yes!" Alex was practically clapping their hands in glee.

"I can also think of a few people on my course," Lucas fiddled with his hair. "And my little sister, who's still in high school."

Megan looked around at everyone, all of them having a plan of how to expand this idea and get more people, and she had nothing. She had no social life, online or IRL. Her family probably wouldn't agree. Paul...

Her eyes widened. The next time they were going to meet was when they had this Julia here, someone who knows about deviants. What better to add to that than an actual deviant?!

Alex noticed Megan's epiphany. "Got an idea there Megan?"

Startled Megan looked up to see everyone looking at her expectantly. "Um. W-well, I-I could get, a friend, to come. If he agrees, he might be able to help m-more than me."

Alex's smile didn't diminish. "Great! Can't wait to meet him!"

"Okay," Ivy clapped her hands. "We have a plan, some homework. Now what? We go for drinks?"

Megan panicked initially, but Alex quickly cut in.

"Most of us are under the drinking age Ivy," Alex sounded like they had to remind Ivy of this a lot.

"I'm not really one for it anyway," Oscar admitted. "Don't like the taste."

"Alright, so, we part ways here?" Ivy asked.

"Some of us have work to do," Lucas intoned, standing up. "Do you know when we'll meet again?"

"I have all of your phone numbers, I'll let you know," Alex answered. "After next week we can set up a group chat and we'll be ready to go."

"Excellent," Lucas collected his bag. "See you then," he turned to leave, before pausing and turning to Megan. "See you in class?"

Megan knew he didn't recognise her, she didn't show up enough.

"Probably not, but I'll be here next time," she answered, surprisingly calm at admitting that. Lucas nodded, smiled, and left.

Oscar, Ivy and Nathan also said their goodbyes and left, leaving Alex and Megan.

"You alright Megan?" Alex asked, noticing that the younger girl hadn't left.

"You, you know a lot of people," Megan noted, and Alex nodded.

"What can I say? I like talking to people. A lot of different people."

"I can tell," Megan agreed. It had been an eclectic bunch meeting tonight.

"So, this friend," Alex probed. "Is this the same friend who had their world turned upside down?"

"Yes, it's the same guy. Paul."

"Cool, see if you can bring him," Alex nodded, before snapping their fingers in realisation. "How's your android been? I got the impression you weren't too keen."

Megan was gripped by a decent amount of panic, and clenched her hand so tight in her pocket she began to dig crescents in her palm.

"H-he's doing alright. Doing his thing. No issues."

"Good, let us know how things go with him."

Alex started towards the door, pausing to see if Megan was going to follow them.

"Why did you nag me about this?" Megan asked the question that had been niggling at her for the past two days.

Alex took their time answering.

"Would you believe me if I said I had a good feeling about you?"

"Not really," Megan admitted, and Alex chuckled.

"Yeah, I didn't think so."

"And what's with all the cloak and dagger? Was it really just theatrics?"

"That I can answer," Alex turned to face Megan. "I'm a little paranoid, okay, maybe a lot," they amended at Megan's disbelieving face. "But, I didn't want people showing up just to cause trouble, ya know? I wanted people who were serious, and if I threw in a bit of challenge, I'd get people who were determined."

"And, that somehow applies to me?"

"You figured it out didn't you?" Alex had that annoying, knowing smirk again. "You took the chance of it being a hoax and came anyway. Seems like you're dedicated enough to me."

"So, basically you took a chance, and it might have paid off."

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Alex's smirk turned to a soft smile. "I know it sounds like everyone has big ideas on how to help, but if everyone had big ideas then we'd never decide what to do."

"I, I guess."

"Hey, if you want to feel more involved, do you want to take minutes for the next meeting? I forgot to do that today, kinda got wrapped up in the excitement of it all."

Megan blinked in surprise. "Er, yeah, I guess. What do I have to do for that?"

"Keep a note of roughly what was said when. Not word for word, you'd have to either be fluent in short hand or the world's fastest writer. Just 'this was suggested then' and such. You can change your mind at any point."

"I'll, I'll do it, yeah."

Alex grinned. "Great. I'll text you when we'll have the next meeting. See ya later!"

"See you," Megan added as Alex left, leaving her in a massive, empty room. Did, did all of that just happen? Did they just plan the start of an android rights group? This was how history was made, right?

Megan focused on her breathing, which was starting to get faster. This could be massive, what the hell was she doing, thinking that she could be involved with this?!

 _Breathe_

She did, focusing on the air going through her nostrils and into her lungs, then out again.

It was okay. One meeting at a time. Now, she had to go home, and tell Paul that this was real. This was happening.

Calm, Megan left the room, and made her way home.

* * *

 **9.30PM Tuesday 2** **nd** **November 2038**

"How did it go? What happened?"

Paul had been waiting by the door for Megan to get in. When she didn't answer immediately he began to pace up and down the room.

"Paul you're going to wear a hole in the floor," Megan commented as she took off her shoes and jacket.

"Unlikely," Paul refused to stop pacing.

"Okay," Megan sighed, setting her bag down by the door. "So, this group is legit. It's real, people showed up, discussed android rights and little on deviants, which will be covered in more detail next time. Overall, looks good."

Paul visibly relaxed and stopped pacing. "So, now what?"

"Now, we wait for Alex to get their guest speaker in, spread the word," Megan paused as she remembered. "Oh, and I may have said that I would ask you to come next time. They don't know you're an android," she added at Paul's alarm.

"Why did you say that?!"

"Because I thought you'd be interested! Besides, if we're talking about deviants next time, who better than an android who's actually a deviant!"

"I can't," Paul shook his head and began pacing again. "I just can't."

"Why?" Megan pressed.

"I'm scared, okay?!" Paul nearly shouted.

"Guess what, so was I!" Megan retaliated "I still went. Trust me, I get it. It sucks being scared all the time, but you can't hide here forever!"

"Watch me," Paul all but snarled.

"Paul, you will go mad if you stay cooped up in here. It's already happened and you can't deny it!" she called as he tried to walk away, however, it was a small apartment, so there wasn't far to go.

"I'm not going to that meeting!" he shouted, making Megan step back, heart rate rising. She had to pause to gather herself in order to respond.

"I never said you had to!" Megan countered, making him pause. "For the love of- you stopped following orders the night you decided to stop me doing something I'd regret, and I'm grateful for that. This is not an order, this is a suggestion. I think it would be a good idea, but I can't force you and I don't want to."

Paul had his hands on the kitchen table, head lowered as he tried to regain control of himself.

"From what you've told me, your mind has, essentially, been broadened. Now, you do experience boredom, and loneliness and don't think I haven't noticed," she added when it looked like he was going to disagree.

"You're being a little hypocritical, aren't you?" he asked, and Megan froze. "You only ever left your apartment building once a week, at best before I was given to you."

"That was self imposed."

"That was you caving into your anxiety," Paul snapped. "And now you're telling me to not do that same thing."

"Because we both know it was bad and we both know that you hadn't been there I probably wouldn't even be here right now!" Megan shouted, voice started to shake as she realised what she'd said. "It-it was bad, and I'm trying to st-stop you from, from making the same mistake."

Paul was calmer when he replied, but still clearly upset.

"By pushing me to do things I'm not ready for?"

"Some-sometimes you need to be pushed. You pushed me, a lot, without realising."

Paul let a sigh, and stood up from the table. His face was blank, and Megan took an unconscious step back, making him blink.

"I-I'm scaring you."

Megan smiled nervously. "A-a little bit?"

Paul's legs seemed to fold beneath him as he down in one of the kitchen chairs. He ran a hand over his face as he tried to collect his thoughts.

"... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lost my temper."

"Welcome to riding the shitstorm," Megan tried to joke, but it fell flat.

Paul tried to respond how she wanted him to, mouth twitching into a smile, but it was clearly forced.

"You don't have to come," Megan reassured as she walked over to her computer.

Paul didn't respond, and Megan waited a few minutes before starting to go over new commissions, since it seemed like Paul wasn't going to say anything.

It took about half an hour for Paul to say something.

"Has the money from your commission come in?"

"Yeah, earlier today."

"Shopping tomorrow. See where we go from there," Paul decided and Megan nodded.

"One step at a time," she agreed.

* * *

So, yes, mostly exposition about the the new characters, who we will be seeing a lot of. And with Nathan's thing about Europe having different androids, according the wiki that's canon.

And Paul is under a lot of stress, as Megan said, him being stuck in the apartment is driving him mad, even if he doesn't want to admit it. He knows that he goes outside there's a high chance of something going wrong, which when he wasn't deviant didn't bother him, but now has the potential to make him freak out.

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **Dismiss idea about Paul (argument won't be so intense later in the chapter, as Megan would merely suggest it to him)**

 **Agree to see Lucas in class**

 **Ask how many more people were supposed to show up. Ask how many Alex expected to stay**

 **Don't ask Alex why they asked Megan to come**

 **Don't agree to be note taker**

 **Lie. Be 100% honest**

 **Break the silence**


	15. Chapter 15

To make clear, " " is speech ' ' is texting.

* * *

 **9AM Wednesday 3** **rd** **November 2038**

The two of them were ready to go by 9AM. Megan had walked Paul through a few more calming techniques, so he could still act like an android without attracting suspicion.

"Remember, most thrift stores are run by human volunteers, so I'll be paying at those, okay?"

"You've already said that, twice," Paul reminded her.

"You're not the only one who's nervous."

Paul nodded, adjusting his uniform. He didn't have to, it was immaculate, but it was a habit that made him feel a bit better.

Megan found that she couldn't resist. "You have a hair out of place."

Paul's eyes widened and his LED went yellow as his hands went to his hair. He then scowled when he realised that Megan was messing with him.

"Not funny."

"Sorry. It was a little bit," Megan admitted.

"For you," Paul grumbled. "Let's get this over with."

The two left the apartment, Paul's posture stiffening and face going into neutral. They went down via the stairs, as per Megan's preference, and Paul could see why. While it took longer than the elevator, there was more of a sense of control when you used the stairs.

The two reached the door leading out into the street and Megan stopped, looking at Paul.

"Ready?" she asked.

Paul didn't visually respond, but Megan got a text alert on her phone. When she checked it, it read 'Ready'

"Let's go then."

The two of them had a plan of action in a way. Once the two had calmed down last night they had found thrift stores and cheap clothing stores within walking distance. Megan wasn't a fan of clothes shopping, and both of their nerves were running high, so they wanted to be able to get out of there as soon as possible.

The clothing store was first, given that they had a deal on shirts. Specifically, polo shirts, which Paul had expressed interest in.

Paul grabbed a basket as they walked in and he quickly clocked where the deal shirts were. The two walked to the middle of the store and Megan pulled a random shirt off of the rack, holding it against Paul to test the size.

"Nope, not that size," men's small was just a bit too small, and when she tried a medium, that seemed like it might be a little big.

Her phone pinged. 'Medium would probably be best.'

Given that it would be odd to have half a conversation with an android in the middle of a store, Megan texted back.

'Want to try it on?'

'No, let's just pick some colours and go'

After a small amount of riffling, Megan held up one red, one orange, and one yellow shirt for approval.

Paul's eyebrow raised ever so slightly and her phone binged.

'I would look like a fall tree'

Megan managed to type with one finger. 'Seasonally appropriate'

'Ha ha'

'Yes or no? Or would you prefer winter colours?'

'We'll go with these'

Paul looked like he had to force himself not to yank them out of Megan's hand and into the basket, restraining himself to use calm, average android speed and strength.

'Anything else?' Megan typed, and Paul visibly shook his head, irritated by Megan's ribbing.

The two walked to the checkout, and Megan started typing again, realising that she'd annoyed him.

'Sorry. I don't usually get an opportunity to do this'

'What, irritate someone?'

'More tease someone who isn't afraid of teasing back. Like, friends do'

Paul almost lost rhythm in his stride, which thankfully only Megan noticed, as all workers were androids and the shoppers were too absorbed in what they were doing.

'You see me as a friend?'

'What did you think I saw you as?'

Paul's LED span yellow as he tried to wrap his head around that. While it was clear their relationship had changed when he went deviant, but he didn't think it was like that. Although, if he was honest, he wasn't sure he could explain what he had thought it was. It made his chest feel light, and there was that warmth again.

Megan laughed to herself as the message feed was suddenly spammed with uncontrollable numbers of smiley faces, phone pinging so much you could make a song out of it.

"I get it," she mumbled, just loud enough for him to hear. "I'm happy you're my friend too."

There was one last ping as Paul sent a series of emojis in one message. Happy. Embarrassed. Thumbs up.

They made it to the counter to pay, and the blue LED on Paul and the attendant spun. The attendant android's face then turned to concern.

"My apologies ma'am," he addressed Megan, "the transaction has failed. Do you have an alternative method of payment?"

Paul's LED went yellow as he began to panic, and Megan felt a similar panic build, but kept it together. She did have her card after all.

"Here you go," Megan handed it over, and Paul calmed down as the transaction went through.

'You alright?' Megan typed as they walked away from the checkout, Paul carrying the bag.

'Better. We knew that could happen' Paul assured, and he looked calm, but it was hard to tell how much of that was an act.

'One down, a few more to go' Megan assured, and Paul gave the faintest of nods.

'Bring it on'

The next one was the first in a series of thrift stores, and the volunteer took one look at them and went back to what they were doing. It didn't help that the store itself was otherwise devoid of people, but Paul and Megan forced each other to go in.

They split up to look around, and it wasn't long before Megan got a text.

'Your shoe size is seven, right?'

'Yeah, why?' As Megan text she walked over to where Paul was in the small shop. She found him next to a show rack, and he gestured towards a sturdy pair of leather boots.

'You are in dire need of new shoes' his eyes went to Megan's ratty sneakers.

'They're still in one piece!' Megan defended.

'For how long?' Paul's eyebrow went up a millimetre.

'Fine, I'll get the shoes if we can find something in here for you. Do you need shoes?'

'No, the ones I have are fine' at Megan's face he texted again 'and they are not falling apart, unlike yours'

"Smart ass," Megan muttered, but smirked slightly. This was what she had hoped for.

She wondered off towards the men's section, and smiled as she spotted something.

'Over here' she typed, and Paul came over, and she showed him a navy rain jacket. Holding it up to him it looked like it fit nicely.

'You need one more than me'

'You'll blend in' she explained, typing with one hand.

'Fine' he broke character and reached into the woman's rack opposite, pulling out a bright pink raincoat. She looked at him, a slight smirk on his face as he put it back and pulled out a dark green one instead.

'Alright, those shoes and those raincoats. Let me know if you find anything else'

Paul slung the raincoats over one arm as Megan meandered back to the boots. They were a nice pair she had to admit, barely used from the look of them.

She sat down to try them on and found them a decent fit. Might take a little bit of getting used to, but overall, a good find.

She joined Paul at the counter to pay, and the volunteer took their time inputting the items. It was almost awkward enough to prompt small talk. Almost.

The new clothes joined the polo shirts in their bag while Paul tucked the shoe box under the same arm. Megan felt guilty making him carry everything, but they had to blend in.

The next thrift store was a little bigger, but still had human assistants, who greeted them.

"Good morning! How can we help you!" the only way that greeting could have been more fake would be if it had been programmed in.

"Surprise clothes shopping for my brother," Megan used their rehearsed excuse. "This guy's about the same size and build," she gestured to Paul, who stared straight ahead.

"Let me know if you have any questions," the greeter said, and Megan nodded as they walked in, making a beeline for the men's section. Almost immediately Paul found something.

He struggled to keep his face straight as he pulled out an old, slightly faded, novelty t-shirt that had a half filled old fashioned loading bar on the front. Above it the caption read 'Response Loading'.

Megan chuckled when she saw it, and typed to make sure.

'You seriously want that?'

'I thought it was funny' Paul looked slightly despondent, thinking Megan was actually laughing at him.

'It is funny' Megan smiled kindly as sure reassured him, and Paul relaxed, before stiffening as he remembered where he was. He draped the t-shirt over his arm and two continued looking.

A pair of sensible black slacks joined the t-shirt, along with some faded jeans, and they were making their way to the next store before they even realised it.

'Was there anything else?' Megan asked.

'A hat' Paul reminded. 'You know, this wasn't as bad as I thought this was going to be'

'Yeah' Megan agreed. 'It's actually been fun. Although, it would be better if we could actually speak to each other, rather than text'

'Agreed'

They made it to their last stop, but paused at the door when confronted with a sign.

'Humans Only. No androids'

They hadn't known about this before. They had just known that there was a thrift store. Megan took a deep breath and kept walking, but Paul kept staring at the sign.

"Paul?" Megan asked out loud, keeping her voice down. "Paul, what are you doing?"

Paul didn't say anything, didn't even text. Megan went back over to him and grabbed his free hand. This startled him enough to break out of his trance and look at her, an expression similar to shock on his face.

"Let's go," Megan tried to keep her voice steady, but the whole thing had rattled her. "There are other thrift stores."

Paul looked back at the sign, but when Megan gave a gentle tug, he allowed himself to be pulled away.

They managed to find a dark beanie and a baseball cap without much trouble, but Paul had remained resolutely silent as they walked back home.

His mind was occupied with two things. One, that sign. Two, Megan holding his hand.

There was nothing romantic there, at least, he didn't think so. It wasn't like he had any experience in that department. Although, if that were the case, it would be one way, unrequited. He knew Megan was both Aromantic and Asexual, such a relationship just wasn't going to be a priority.

Megan knew his head was spinning or that he was thinking hard about something, as his LED hadn't shifted from yellow ever since he saw that sign.

She spotted something in one of the shops they passed, and without a word, ducked inside.

Paul followed, but not quickly enough to see what she was doing, as she had grabbed something and was already at the till, paying.

In less than a minute she was back with him.

"You'll see when we get home," she said, which didn't really help his mood, but he didn't argue.

* * *

 **12PM Wednesday 3** **rd** **November 2038**

Once they were back in the apartment Paul dropped the shopping bags onto the coffee table.

"Sorry you had to carry all of those," Megan apologised, her own shopping bag dangling from her wrist.

"It's okay. They weren't heavy," Paul assured, but his tone was oddly monotone, and his LED was still yellow.

"Are you okay?" Megan asked. "I can understand if that sign upset you."

"I'm fine," Paul waved off, which instantly got Megan suspicious, but she also knew that was a good sign to drop it.

"Well, if you don't want to talk it, fine. Maybe you could get some use out of this?" she reached into her bag and pulled out a notebook.

It was ringbound and fairly cheap, which made sense given how much they'd spent that day. There was a space at the top for a name on the pale blue cover, and there was a holder with a pen at the side.

"Sometimes, writing your thoughts helps in understanding them," Megan held out the notebook nonchalantly, like this was no big deal.

Paul took the notebook off her and held it in his hands, finding it was small enough to fit easily into a pocket. He could feel a new feeling welling up, as well as some irritation at the back of his eyes

"This, this is for me?" he clarified, and Megan nodded.

"Yeah," she confirmed, she then paused when Paul just continued to stare at the book. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Paul's voice wasn't nearly as steady as he would have liked. "I'm okay."

"Okay," Megan didn't believe a word he said, but was willing to let it drop. "I'll unpack this stuff while you, chill out."

"I can do it," were the immediate words out of his mouth, and he went to put the book down. Megan grabbed the shopping bag before he had to chance to.

"I'll unpack it. Where would you like me to put your new clothes?"

It occurred to both of them at roughly the same time that Paul didn't really have his own space in the apartment.

"On the couch, I guess," Paul responded uncertainly, and Megan obliged. The clothes had scrunched a little in the bags, and Megan smoothed them out as best she could before putting them on the arms and along the back of the couch.

Paul sat on it, still holding the book, while Megan went to go sit at her computer.

"You can have the couch if you want," she suddenly said, and Paul looked over his shoulder at her, confused.

"As your own space," she elaborated. "Unless there's somewhere else you'd feel more comfortable?"

"Couch is fine," Paul assured, before turning back around and opening the book.

Megan decided to leave him to it, turning back to her computer as he started to write.

A few minutes later she got a message from Alex.

'J can meet us in two days. Ace/Aro room. Same time'

Megan looked over at Paul, who was still writing without pause. She would tell him later.

* * *

Mostly a fluff chapter, with some emotional confusion on Paul's part. Also, I didn't write this, and I'm annoyed that I didn't; I always actually imagine Paul in a pink polo shirt, rather than red, orange or yellow. Maybe I could write some one shots to cover that.

Eagle eyed readers might have noticed the date this takes place. Next chapter is when the game starts.

Other Options Flowchart

Reassure (don't joke about his hair)

Insist her shoes are fine

Say the shirt's not funny

Select different notebook (more expensive, different colour etc.)

Continue to ask if Paul's fine

Let Paul unpack


	16. Chapter 16

**19.00 Friday 5** **th** **November 2038**

"I still can't believe you agreed to this," Megan said, passing Paul his jacket.

"I'm seriously considering backing out," he added, putting on the navy rain coat. He was wearing his 'Response Loading' shirt and jeans. His black shoes didn't look completely out of place with the outfit, but another thrift store foray might be in order soon.

"Then why are you still getting changed?" Megan asked as she passed him his beanie.

"Like you said," he put the beanie on, tucking his blonde hair underneath it and double checking that it covered his temples. "Sometimes you need to be pushed."

He took a step back and opened his arms. "How do I look?"

Megan took half a step back and appraised him.

"You're wearing your jeans too high. I can see your ankles."

Paul huffed and pushed the waistband down from where it had been sitting. "It's supposed to be this low?"

"According to my dad on guys it's supposed to sit on the waist."

"It feels like it's going to fall down," Paul complained, pulling the jeans up a bit higher.

"We'll add a belt to the shopping list. For now you'll just have to cope."

Paul huffed again, but settled down. "What about everything else?"

"Looks good," Megan confirmed.

"What about...?" Paul gestured to his face.

"What about it?"

"I'm hardly an uncommon android model. What if someone recognises my face?"

"Er, just say, you get that a lot?"

"Very encouraging," he pulled off the beanie and grabbed the baseball cap instead, shoving it on. "Better?"

"Certainly harder to see your face," Megan agreed, and Paul relaxed.

"Good," he shoved the beanie in his pocket. "Anything else we need?"

Megan checked her bag and pockets for the third time that evening.

"Notebook and pen. Phone, bus pass for me, bus fare for you, keys. We're good."

Paul took a deep breath. "Let's go."

The two of them left the apartment and took the stairs as usual. Paul stiffened as they got closer to the bottom, but Megan nudged him.

"Relax."

"How can I possibly relax?" he hissed back.

"Pretend to relax then."

Paul barely broke stride as he forced his shoulders to slump and put his hands in his coat pockets.

Rain battered down outside, making Megan and Paul pull up the hoods of their coats, even as they sheltered underneath the bus stop.

There was a slightly hairy moment as Paul started to walk towards the android boarding section. Megan grabbed his hand and gave him a brief questioning look, as they weren't the only ones at the stop.

"Ah, er. Wasn't thinking," he excused, and Megan let a sigh of relief, eyeing the other traveller warily.

"I could tell, ya big goof," Megan gently elbowed him and Paul went to stand next to her.

The bus pulled up a few minutes later and the two got on, Paul paying the fare that Megan had passed him before she scanned her pass. The automatic machine spat out his change and ticket, which he folded carefully and put in his pocket.

The two sat next to each other, and Paul couldn't help but look around, especially at the back, in the android compartment.

Megan patted his hand a little awkwardly, unsure how to comfort him on this one. He looked back around at her and smiled at her, although, the smile was a little wobbly.

"It's alright," she assured, while being aware that anyone else on the quiet bus could hear. "You'll like them. Alex gets on with everyone."

"How will I know who is Alex?"

"Trust me, you can't miss them. Unless they're doing their cloak and dagger thing. I think they've watched one too many spy movies."

Paul snorted in sudden laughter and doubled over in his seat, confusing Megan.

"It wasn't that funny."

"Sorry, sorry," Paul had his hand over his mouth to muffle his giggles. "Just, savouring the moment."

Megan shook her head and looked out of the window, watching Detroit flow past as Paul recovered.

Once he had calmed down he joined Megan in looking out of the window, and little else was said for the rest of the journey.

The bus dropped them off with five minutes until the meeting, so Megan wasted no time power walking for their destination. Paul was taken by surprise, but quickly caught up. He easily kept up with her frantic pace, having longer legs and being almost a foot taller.

"Are you going to get into trouble for being late?" he asked, concerned by her speed.

"Probably not," Megan slowed down a fraction. "I just don't like being late."

Megan navigated the Humanities building with ease, knowing the way to this meeting room like the back of her hand. Paul was constantly tempted to stop and look at the displays, but Megan was on a mission and unlikely to stop for him. He didn't want to get lost in here.

Megan paused in front of one of the doors, which looked no different from any of the other doors in the hallway beside the number. Her hand was half outstretched to push the door open, but something was stopping her.

"What's wrong?" Paul asked, and Megan seemed startled, like she'd forgotten he was there.

"Just bracing myself. Alex knows I'm not exactly sociable, so I don't know how they're going to react to you."

"You told them about me, right?"

"Yeah, but it wouldn't surprise me if Alex thought I was making you up."

"Okay," Paul was rather concerned by that but decided not to add anything. He instead walked over and put his hand on the door. "Ready?"

"I should be asking you that," Megan grumbled, "But yeah."

They pushed open the door to reveal that Alex was already in there. They had dispensed with the neutral clothing this time, instead looking like the personification of the Ace Pride flag.

"Megan!" they grinned, putting down the chair they were holding. "Good to see you!" they turned their gaze to Paul, smile becoming slightly more mischievous. "And this must be your friend?"

"Er, yeah. Alex, this Paul. Paul, this is Alex."

"Nice to meet you," Paul held out his hand, and Alex shook it.

"A gentleman as well. You don't see that very often." Alex commented, and Paul looked away for a second, embarrassed.

Alex let go and took a step back. "Want to help me get some chairs set up? Ivy and Lucas managed to get a few more people interested."

"Sure," Megan said, and Paul nodded wordlessly, just going over to the chairs. "Where's Julia?" Megan asked, suddenly remembering.

"She's running a little late. Her taxi got stuck in traffic," Alex grabbed a stack of chairs from the side and started depositing them in a rough semi-circle. "Anyway, with any luck we could have as many as ten people tonight!"

"That many?" Paul couldn't seem to decide whether he was being sarcastic or curious.

"Oh hush, we had six of us the other night. Any new people is a massive bonus!"

Paul looked at Megan, who was already helping with chairs. She met his gaze and shrugged slightly, making her thoughts clear.

"What's up people?!" the door burst open, startling Megan enough to drop the chair she was holding and make Paul whirl around. Coming in through the door was a pair of students so brightly dressed it made Megan's eyes water.

The one at the head was Ivy, sans the beanie, making her short blue, yellow and pink hair much more obvious. Her green eyes stood out beneath elaborate makeup, which somehow matched her red and yellow jacket and trousers.

The woman behind Ivy was slightly more muted, with their longer hair natural colours, brown streaked with blonde. Although, purple pink and green seemed to be order of the day with her, going all the way to neon green leather boots.

Alex greeted them warmly as Paul reeled from sensory overload.

"Ivy! Good to see you! Who'd you bring?"

"This is Maggie," Ivy introduced, and Maggie waved, smiling. "We're on the same floor in our dorm."

"Great to have you. We'll do full introductions when everyone gets here," Alex put down the chair they were holding. "Take a seat."

Maggie and Ivy sat next to each other on the far right just as Oscar walked in.

"Hey Oscar!" Alex greeted, and the football player nodded.

"Hey Alex, sorry I couldn't get anyone over."

"No worries man," Alex's smile hadn't deteriorated in the slightest. "Take a seat. You guys as well," they nodded to Paul and Megan, who was still standing up.

Megan sat herself on the far left chair, and Paul sat next to her as she pulled out her notebook and pen.

Nathan walked in next, quickly followed by Lucas and someone else Megan recognised from her History classes.

She were small and slight, a little taller than Megan and a little bit bulkier, but in a healthy way. She wore a leather jacket, jeans, and sneakers, and her blonde hair hung over her shoulders.

"Hey Nathan, Lucas," Alex greeted warmly, and their smile actually faltered a little bit when they saw the new girl. "Hi Allison,"

"Hey Alex," in comparison Allison was pretty calm. "I know what you're thinking. I'm not here to cause trouble. I am actually interested, Lucas told me who was running this and I came anyway."

"Thanks," Alex looked unsure for the first time Megan had known them. "That's, very mature of you."

Allison nodded and took a seat roughly near the middle as Alex recovered. Paul shot Megan a confused look and Megan shrugged; she'd never heard anything about this before.

The door opened one last time and the last person walked in. An African American woman a little older than Alex, dressed casually with a large rucksack stopped a little at the door, and Alex remembered how to greet people.

"Julia! Glad you made it!"

Julia smiled a little quickly in response, clearly nervous. "Hey Alex, like I said, issue with the taxi. Everyone here?"

"I think so," Alex looked around, and everyone nodded. "Great! Quick introductions then Megan can start on minutes!"

* * *

 **Paul's getting braver! I'm so proud of my little android boy. I also kinda imagine the bit where he walks towards the android boarding compartment as a side fun thing, if this was a game.**

 **So, Alex and Allison have a history. I might talk about it more, another time.**

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **(Paul) Keep the beanie**

 **(Megan) Pat shoulder. Do Nothing**

 **(Paul) Do Nothing. Open the door for her**


	17. Chapter 17

**8.10PM Friday 5** **th** **November 2038**

Megan got her notebook resting on her knee as the group re-introduced each other for the newcomers. Given their position she and Paul were last to say their names, which wasn't as awkward as she was worried it was going to be.

"Okay, Julia, the floor is yours," Alex took a seat, leaving Julia at the front of the room. With a less than amused expression she dropped her bag on the floor and began to speak.

"Well, Alex may well have told you that I'm the niece of Captain Fowler who works in the Detroit City Police Department, Central Division," She opened with. "He's not the best at keeping work and private life separate, so I heard about the deviant cases when he was muttering about them when he thought no one could hear him.

"A deviant android is classified as an android goes against, or deviates, from their original programming. Most of the cases that come up in the police files are ones where the deviant acted violently, however there are also plenty of cases of missing androids which could also be deviants. I understand you had a discussion about this last time, so I'll refrain from going into too much detail.

"Apparently there's going to be a more formal investigation on deviants starting, well, now," Julia was fiddling with something on her phone as she talked. "Captain Fowler is considering Lieutenant Anderson for this, so definitely not the best person. There's also talk of getting him a partner, and he's super pissed about this," she handed her phone to Ivy, who looked at it and began to pass it down.

"On the phone is, admittedly a bad picture, of a unique android with the model number RK800. He was present at the hostage situation in August and has been active in a handful of other deviant cases with a high success rate. He goes by the name Connor, and CyberLife want to lend him to the police to help with this case."

Megan got the phone off of Paul, and she had to agree, it wasn't the best photo. It was a blurry, zoomed in shot showing a round, rather soft face with tidy brown hair. It was difficult to get much more detail than that, although the android identifiers were obvious.

"He might not be relevant to you guys right now, but if you're getting involved with android rights, deviants were going to come up, and he might show up," Julia continued. "If you see him, be as natural as you can, otherwise, you're fucked. This guy is state of the art."

"But, there's only one of him?" Lucas asked, and Julia nodded.

"As far as I know, he's the only one."

"Well, that's something at least," Allison added.

"That's pretty much all I had," Julia shrugged. "I have copies of the older case files if you want to look at them, as well as some of the missing ones."

"That's not legal, is it?" Nathan asked.

"Not exactly," Julia admitted, "But no one outside this room needs to know."

Alex smirked. "Thanks for that Julia. Anyone have any questions?"

Lucas put his hand up. "Do you reckon Josh is a deviant?"

"Who the hell is Josh?" Ivy asked, and Allison answered.

"A lecturer android who got jumped by some drunk students at the beginning of the semester. Hasn't been seen since."

Julia thought for a moment. "I think his case is in with the missing androids, but given what you've described it wouldn't surprise me. Anyone else?"

Paul paused for a second, before putting his hand up, making Alex grin in delight.

"Do you know what causes androids to go deviant?" he asked, and Megan froze for a second, also curious.

"Honestly, the only people who are likely to know for certain are CyberLife, and given that none of this is public information, they aren't going to be sharing any time soon," Julia paused to think. "That said, the common factor in pretty much all the cases I've looked through is an emotionally charged and stressful situation, often involving self preservation on the android's side. Of course that might not be the only trigger, but it's the only one we know about right now."

Paul nodded to himself and leaned back into the chair.

"Anyone else?" Alex asked, but no one else appeared to have any questions. "Okay. Julia, you going to stay for the rest of the meeting?"

"Sure, why not?" she shrugged.

Oscar was first up to grab a chair for Julia, and she sat down next to him. Once Julia sat down Alex took centre stage.

"Okay, how's everyone doing with what we started last week? Obviously Ivy, Lucas, and Megan brought who they said they would. How about everyone else?"

"Pretty much no one of the football team agreed with me," Oscar sighed. "I'll try some of the other sports, but I don't have high hopes."

"Well done for trying," Alex looked at Nathan, who cleared his throat.

"I put up a post online where I knew a lot of UK and European people follow me. Mixed reactions so far. Might make a separate account to push it a little more."

"Good to hear!" Alex paused for a second for Megan to catch up on the minutes. "So, we still need more ways to spread the message, without attracting android haters too much."

"What about targeting them specifically?" asked Allison, "Sometimes conflict is a good way to get attention."

"Not only are we outnumbered on that," Alex countered, "it would also get the wrong kind of attention. We want people to listen to us, not brush us off as lunatics."

"Well, I might have something on that," Lucas added, an excited grin on his face. "I talked to my sister, and she's starting her own version of the group at her high school."

"No way!" Alex had an ecstatic grin on their face. "That's awesome!"

"Yeah," Lucas agreed. "Only issue is that we don't have a name yet."

"Yeah, fair point," Alex steepled their fingers.

"Really?" Allison asked. "I thought that would be the first thing you'd think of."

"They got distracted by cloak and dagger," Ivy smirked, making Alex glare at her.

"Thanks," they responded dryly. "That can be everyone's homework. Send in name suggestions for next time."

"If I may," Maggie spoke up for the first time all meeting. "What is the end goal here? And, how are we going to get it?"

"Well, the overall end goal would be equal rights for androids," Alex started, "although, that will take a while. The idea being that deviants prove that androids are more than they seem and should be entitled to basic rights. As for how we get there? Spread the word, see if we can get other schools to form groups," they nodded to Lucas on that one, "Maybe, er, protests, once we get enough of a movement going."

"Basically, you have no idea," Allison interrupted.

"Clearly I have ideas, I just said them."

"You didn't even have a name for this. Sounds to me like you got caught up in the excitement of the idea without thinking about the reality of it," Allison stood up, almost squaring off with Alex. "If you really want to do this, then you need to know that this isn't a game. This isn't a cute club or one of your pride societies. This has the potential to be history making and you have no idea what you're doing!"

"It's only the second meeting, I'm figuring it out!"

"Then you need to be thinking of all options. I'm surprised no one has suggested trying to find some deviants to ask if they even want this!"

"The police haven't been able to find them," interjected Julia, "how the hell are a bunch of college students going to?"

"Another point!" Allison kept looking at Alex, but pointed a finger at Julia. "Do we know how widespread deviancy is? Is it localised to Detroit or is it all over the country?"

"I don't know," Julia admitted.

"That's another bit of homework then," Allison stated.

"So you're trying to take over now are you?" Alex asked coldly.

"I'm trying to make sure this is done right!"

"Okay, Allison," Lucas jumped in. "You've made your point. As Alex said, this is the second meeting, we have plenty of time to think of ideas and nominate someone to lead."

As this was going on Paul kept checking on Megan with increasing concern. One hand was still scribbling notes, but her handwriting had quickly become scrawled and barely legible. Her whole body was tense, and her breathing had become quick and shallow.

He tapped his finger against her chair like a metronome, letting her notice and follow it without drawing everyone else's attention.

"So, shall we have a vote now?" Allison asked.

"No," Oscar spoke, his deep voice reverberating. "It's too early for that."

"Fine," Allison turned and sat back down. "But I hope you realise what you're getting yourself in for."

Alex nodded, looking sombre. "I, I suppose we can call it there. All of you, think of name ideas. Everyone who has family outside of Detroit see if you can ask them about rogue androids, get some info. Julia, keep digging but be careful. Thanks for bringing the case files, but I don't think we'll be needing them. Newcomers if you stick around I can grab your phone numbers and we can start a group chat. Megan, can you hang around so I can read the minutes?"

Megan didn't initially respond, still recovering from the argument, so Paul nodded in her stead.

"We can do that."

"Great! On that note, meeting dismissed," Alex seemed less enthusiastic, which was understandable. Oscar, Nathan and Julia wandered out, with Lucas and Ivy staying with their friends as Alex got Maggie and Allison's number.

The atmosphere was still tense between the two of them, but they managed to exchange numbers civilly. When they left Lucas looked behind him at Alex and mouthed 'sorry', to which Alex just smiled.

Finally it was just the three of them, and Alex let the smile drop, revealing a tired expression.

"Sorry about that Megan. I saw you getting upset during the argument, but there was nothing I could do."

" 'S okay," Megan mumbled, and Paul cautiously rested a hand on her shoulder.

Alex suddenly had to fight a smile and clasped their hands together. "I should know better, but I'm shipping you two."

"What?" Paul asked, as Megan's face went bright red.

"Aaaalllleeeex," she groaned, and Alex laughed.

"Sorry, sorry, but platonic ships are a thing."

"Alex!"

"I would continue to apologise, but I'm not really sorry."

Paul chuckled to himself as the two of them interacted, even if he didn't really know what a ship was.

"Anyway, this wasn't the only reason I wanted to talk to you," Alex calmed down, and alarmingly, was looking right at Paul. "You know I have a flair for the dramatic, so I might be blowing this out of proportion, but you Paul, look a lot like an android."

Paul managed to force a smile, even if it was nervous. "Yeah, er, I-I get that all the time."

Alex got a dangerous smirk on their face, which Paul didn't necessarily recognise. Megan knew it as their 'I'm about to do something that I think is a good idea, but you might not' look. Before she could give a warning, Alex shot forward and knocked Paul's up and off his head.

Time seemed to slow as the baseball cap fell off, and Paul's LED was revealed for all to see.

Paul scrambled to catch it and shove it back on his head, but it was too late. Alex had seen it.

"I knew it!" Alex sounded, elated? "This is awesome!"

"I'm sorry?" Paul adjusted his hat as Alex continued to ramble.

"It makes so much sense! You being so invested in deviants last time," they pointed to Megan before going back to Paul, "and you being so curious as to how they happen. Are you a deviant?"

"What do you think?" he responded, more than a little on edge.

Alex _squealed_ and clapped their hands. "This is great! We have an actual deviant!"

"Can you shout it any louder?" Paul hissed. "And it's not like I speak for deviants."

Alex turned to Megan, who was gripping her pen in a white knuckle grip. "Did you know about this?"

Megan nodded tersely, not trusting herself to speak.

"Guys, it's okay. It's not like I outed you in front of everyone," Alex defended, and Megan suddenly spoke.

"I thought you'd know better than to out someone, at all."

Alex blinked at Megan's restrained tone, and deflated. "You're right, I got, caught up in it all," they slumped a little, as if reminded of Allison's words. "I'm sorry Paul."

"It's okay," he assured. "Like you said, it wasn't in front of everyone," he looked over at Megan, who was still tense, and sat into the chair next her. He carefully put his hand on her shoulder, and without thinking Megan leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder.

Alex managed to stifle another squeal of delight.

"I have never seen you calm down so fast," they managed to get out in a normal tone of voice.

Megan looked more embarrassed and pulled back, much to Alex's disappointment.

"Ho-how did you figure out I was an android?" Paul moved the subject along.

"Oh, your face, hair colour. PL600's are a fairly common model with little variation. Although..." Alex tapped their fingers in thought. "AX400's have been known to change their hair colour, and they're an older model, so it wouldn't surprise me if you could do that too."

"How on earth would I-?" Paul paused as his LED spun yellow, checking his systems. "Okay, it seems that I can."

There was a moment of thought, and Paul's hair changed to a copper red, a similar shade to Megan's.

Her eyes went wide and Alex's grin bordered on fanatical.

"You're adorable," they said frankly, making Paul flush blue as Thirium rushed to his face.

Alex coughed and regained composure. "Good start. You might want to mess around with a different hairstyle. Little bit of make up on the face. Nothing over the top, just to change the natural shadows of the face."

"I know a little bit about make up," Paul admitted. "Given what I was designed to do, some basic make up application programmes were installed, and the Beckwiths sometimes needed help."

"Basics are all you'll need," Alex assured. "Megan, I know you don't wear makeup, so I'll give you guys some of mine."

"You don't have to," Megan mumbled, and Alex waved it off.

"It's fine. Less stress for you two and I don't use much so I can easily grab some more. Here," Alex dug around in their pockets and pulled out a tube of foundation, a pad of blush and a stick of eye liner. "These should do for now."

Paul took them and carefully stowed them in his jeans. "Thank you."

"No worries, although, there's one thing I curious about. Well, two, actually."

"What is it?" Paul asked, guessing that Alex wouldn't let either of those questions drop for a while.

"One. How did you become deviant? Two. Why did you stay with Megan?"

Paul shifted uncomfortably. "The first one's personal," he couldn't stop himself glancing at Megan. "And the second, I don't really know. I never felt like I needed to leave."

"Okay, that's all I've got," Alex was still smiling, exactly what this smile meant Megan had no idea, but she doubted it was good. "How did you find doing the minutes?"

"Okay, I think I did alright," Megan showed Alex the minutes, and Alex nodded.

"They look good. Want to be the official note taker?"

"Yeah, I'm okay with that."

Alex nodded. "Cool. Well, I'd better let you two get back, I know it's long bus ride. Oh, and maybe think about hair gel," they added to Paul, who nodded as he took his coat off of the back of the chair.

"Will I see you at the Ace/Aro meeting tomorrow?" Alex asked, and Megan shrugged as she packed up.

"Maybe. This was a little intense," Megan admitted.

"Yeah, Allison gets like that. I know she has good points, but does she have to be so aggressive about it?" Alex shook their head. "Anyway, I'll put the chairs back. See you guys soon."

Megan and Paul left the room together and walked towards the bus stop mostly in silence. It was still raining heavily, and the two didn't say anything until they reached the bus stop.

"So, Alex," Paul started.

"They're intense," Megan agreed. "They can be chilled out, unless they're really excited about something."

"Yep," Paul agreed, nodding. "...what is a ship anyway?"

Megan groaned, having hoped he'd forget about it.

"You see, when someone thinks two, or more people, either fictional or real, in some cases, would work well together in a relationship, usually romantic, but sometimes platonic. That's shipping."

"Okay," Paul looked like he understood, vaguely. "And people do this, why?"

"I have no idea."

* * *

 **So yes, some conflict in the group. I couldn't keep all nice and friendly forever you know. Yeah, Alex doesn't always think things through, and does tend to get caught up in the moment. They have historically started and abandoned clubs and groups, which is they Allison met them. They've done this several times with a group Allison joined and she ended up taking the slack, hence why she's a little bitter.**

 **Paul getting outed, like I said, Alex gets caught in the moment. At the time, it seemed like wonderfully dramatic idea that could have no negative consequences, right? It worked out, but yeah, don't do that.**

 **Yeah, the thing with AX400's (Kara) and Pl600's is correct according to the wiki. I know that doesn't necessary mean that Paul can change his hair colour but hey, I like the idea, and in canon it's not mentioned either way, so, yeah.**

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **(Paul) Don't ask a question**

 **(Megan) Defend Alex. Agree with Allison (affects relationship) would be done nervously and the QTE would be quick**

 **(Paul) Respond angrily. Respond dejectedly**

 **(Megan) Don't respond. Respond neutrally**

 **Hair colour change options-Black, chestnut, strawberry blonde, mousy brown**


	18. Chapter 18

**I will not be able to post a new chapter on Monday, as I will be travelling. Next Chapter will be posted next Thursday.**

* * *

 **9PM Friday 5** **th** **November 2038**

On the bus ride home, Megan got a text from Alex.

'He likes you, you know'

Megan stared at the phone in shock, then looked out of the corner of her eye at Paul. He was distracted by the world going by, so she rapidly texted back.

'Don't be ridiculous. He's knows I'm Ace/Aro'

Alex's response was annoyingly smug.

'Love doesn't work like that ;)'

'He's known me two weeks'

'He went deviant for you 3'

'Alex! Stop shipping!'

'Subtext my friend. Subtext'

'I hate you'

'Love you too'

Megan made to put her phone away, but was distracted by another notification from Alex.

'Seriously though. He's good for you. Even if you don't feel that way, he's your safe space'

Megan relaxed a bit, and typed back.

'I do feel more relaxed when he's there. Although he freaks out too sometimes'

'Everyone does, but you know how to handle that from experience, right?'

'Yeah, I do. See you later'

'See ya. Setting up group chat now. I'm guessing Paul doesn't have a phone number'

'He connected to my phone, so I can add him'

'I forgot that was a feature! You do that'

A few minutes later Megan's phone pinged as the new group came into being. She nudged Paul.

"Group's up, want me to add you?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Paul sounded a little taken aback, but didn't say anything else as Megan added him to the group.

"...Alex is suggesting code names," he stated out loud as the chat scrolled translucently through his vision.

"And Allison is annoyed," Megan added. "...I'm going to suggest Alex goes for 'AAA Battery', you?"

Paul snorted with laughter. "Do it."

Megan did just that, and soon everyone was suggesting code names for each other and for themselves.

"Alright," Megan declared, trying not to laugh, "Alex went with my suggestion. Allison turned down 'Shitstirrer' and has gone with 'That1BikerChick'. Oscar is 'Coubertin'. Ivy is 'Poison Oak'. Maggie is 'Rainbow3. Julia is 'Captain Hardass', which Allison is now regretting not taking. Nathan is 'Ringo'. Lucas wanted Coubertin, but has settled for 'Tudor' I'm 'Nervousness Incarnate', and we're waiting on you," she looked at him expectantly.

Paul thought for a moment, and a notification popped up.

"...You went for Beep Boop?" Megan asked, incredulous.

"I thought it was funny," Paul defended, then paused as another notification came in. "So did Alex. I think. That's what 'ROFLOL' means, right?"

"It means 'Rolling On the Floor Laughing Out Loud'," Megan translated. "So yes, they found it hilarious."

Paul nodded. "I think I like your friends."

"I only met most of them a few days ago," Megan defended. "Out of them only Alex is my friend, and sometimes I wonder why."

"...I'm glad I stayed," Paul said after some thought, and Megan shot her head up to look at him.

"Did, did you ever think about leaving?"

"Yes. On that first night," Paul admitted. "But, I didn't know how you'd react to me not being there, and... I didn't want you to do something you'd regret, because of me."

"Oh," Megan said quietly. "What about, after that?"

"I couldn't really see me leaving. It was obvious you needed someone, and, I didn't want to be alone."

Megan sighed, and leaned her head on his arm, in a slightly teasing manner. "You big softie."

"And you'd like me any other way?"

"Not really."

Paul smiled, and looked out of the front of the bus, as the chat continued to flow past his eye.

* * *

 **10AM Saturday 6** **th** **November 2038**

Megan ended up not going to the Ace/Aro society, not feeling up to a large crowd of people. Not to mention, the next day held something rather daunting.

Her appointment at the Medical Centre.

She was already pacing at 10AM while Paul experimented with makeup and hair styles in the bathroom mirror. Currently his now red hair was standing up in all directions, and he wasn't happy with it.

"I can hear you pacing!" he called from the bathroom, not looking away from the mirror.

"I'm nervous!" Megan shot back. "I haven't an appointment like this in years!"

"I'm coming with you, remember?" the two had gotten him a belt, a pair of sneakers and some hair gel online with next day delivery, and with the makeup and new hair, Paul felt more confident about going out. Even if he wasn't a big fan of the sensation of hair gel.

"Yeah, but you can't come with me into the appointment. These things are private."

Paul had managed to get his hair into a casual mess which he was kind of happy with, so poked his head out of the bathroom to look at Megan.

"Are they going to judge you?"

"What?"

"Are they going to judge you?"

"Well, they shouldn't. It's not their job."

"And you're going with the android counsellor, correct?"

"Yeah, although I feel bad about that now," Megan had stopped pacing and stood with her arms folded.

"Don't be, just be nice and it'll fine," Paul smiled. "And since they'll be an android, they'll be even less likely to judge."

"Yeah," Megan sighed. "Sorry, I'm just... Ah! I wish I could explain it, but it doesn't even make sense to me! It's just, anxiety for anxiety's sake!"

Paul left the bathroom and stood in front of Megan. Noticing that he towered over her he crouched a little.

"Megan, you know it won't be as bad as you think it will be. You've said it yourself; it's usually fine once you start talking."

"I know. It's just getting there. The anticipation," Megan started fiddling with the sleeves on her shirt. The cuts on her arm had healed by now, but Paul still felt a horrible thudding sensation in his lower abdomen when he thought about them.

"Distract yourself. Do some writing," Paul suggested. "I'll tell you when it's time to go."

Megan looked like she wanted to object, but ended up nodding reluctantly and sitting at her computer.

"I also need to call my parents," she remembered with a groan. "Both for Alex's thing, and just to check in."

"How often do you call your parents?"

"About once a month, maybe? We started out once a week, but I was running out of things to say," Megan shrugged. "Then they'd start talking about my brother, and, well, that gets old after a while."

"What about your brother?" Paul could tell this was a little touchy, but his curiosity got the better of him.

"My perfect little brother," Megan grumbled. "Got into college on a sports scholarship, football captain in high school. Actually had a date for prom while I had a panic attack in the girls bathroom because I had been forced to go. No mental health issues as far as I'm aware and is actually likely to give my parents grandchildren. Anything else you want to know?"

"I can't help but think you might want to bring this up later today," Paul noted, and Megan snorted.

"Maybe."

"Focus on something else," Paul reminded. "I won't let you be late."

Paul was as good as his word, and they were on the bus at 11AM. Megan was fidgeting with her sleeves again, this time with her coat. Paul had the beanie on this time as the temperature was starting to drop.

"Brainstorm some name ideas," Paul suggested, as no one in the group had anything yet. Megan nodded vacantly and looked out of the window. Thankfully the fidgeting calmed as Megan thought, and it kept her occupied for most of the journey.

* * *

Little bit of discourse that should be solved by next week or so. Game plot still hasn't interfered yet, and won't until the Stratford Tower. So, eagle eyed readers, keep an eye on the dates.

To explain some of the 'codenames' since they are Alex going overboard again. Coubertin was the French Duke (?) who rediscovered and reinstated the Olympic Games. AAA Battery for Alex, the joke is that they are Asexual, Aromantic and Agender. It's the kind of joke they would find funny...

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) Choose other code name (I can't think of any funny robot based ones, so I'll leave up to you guys!)

(Paul) Don't get sentimental

(Paul) Comfort. Blunt

(Paul) Don't ask about the brother


	19. Chapter 19

**I'm back! No issue with the flight; I actually had an entire row to myself, on an overnight flight. Score!**

* * *

 **12.05AM Saturday 6** **th** **November 2038**

She started shrinking in on herself as they walked across campus, and Paul was nervous as well, as Megan was too distracted and nervous to help him if anyone caused trouble.

Thankfully they got to the Medical Centre with no problems. Just before they entered Megan paused. Before Paul could ask she took a deep breath, puffed her chest out, and walked in.

"Welcome!" chimed the android receptionist, which set Paul on edge. Was he like that before? With clinical friendliness towards his task? That's just creepy.

"I-I have an appointment," Megan was stuttering, but coping.

"May I see your student ID?" the receptionist asked, and Megan handed it over. The LED on the android spun blue as she scanned it.

"Welcome. There is currently no delay with appointments. Please take a seat in the waiting area."

"Thanks," Megan nodded before turning and going to sit in one of the nearby chairs. Paul joined her on the stiff plastic chairs and watched her shrink in on herself again.

"You'll be fine."

Megan nodded. "It's just remembering that."

After a pause, Paul held his hand out next to Megan. She spotted the movement and looked down, remembering the text conversation with Alex. She looked at the clock and felt a pitch of nerves when it told her there were less than five minutes until her appointment.

She swallowed her pride, and placed her hand on top of Paul's. She'd been paranoid ever since that text, which she would blame on what was about to come out of her mouth.

"Did you know that there four different kinds of love?"

"No I did not."

"Well, there's different interpretations, but the one I like has these ones. Love for your family, love for your friends, romantic love, and sexual love. The last two I don't feel or really understand the appeal of. But, the first two I definitely feel."

"Okay," Paul nodded. "What brought that on?"

"Nerves probably," Megan chuckled, but the sound was full of said nerves.

"Megan Carroll?" called out a medical android, and Megan stiffened, her hand tightening on Paul's hand.

"You will be fine," he assured, some nerves of his own appearing as he realised he was going to be left in the waiting room, alone.

Megan nodded tightly and stood up to follow the android into the back, leaving Paul on his own.

He didn't need to, but found it helpful to take a few deep breaths as he tapped his finger against his thigh. With his other hand he fiddled with the beanie, making sure it covered his right temple.

Time managed to drag, despite his internal clock keeping perfect track. To pass the time he consulted the group chat. There had been a few updates since the last meeting. Lucas's sister's group were also brainstorming a name, although they weren't using code names. A few ideas had been suggested, but none had stuck. Megan had suggested a few on the bus, but she hadn't been happy with them.

So Paul decided to try his hand. He thought for a few minutes before.

Beep Boop: How about 'Android Allies'?

AAA Battery: ... I like it

Ringo: Alliteration is always nice

That1BikerChick: If anyone asks they're going to think we mean 'Alcoholics Anonymous'

Rainbow3: Not a bad thing

Coubertin: Is it for college students?

Captain Hardass: Yeah. Means you're taking control of your life and not giving into peer pressure

Coubertin: Good point

Tudor: That1BikerChick Stop texting in class!

That1BikerChick: Sorry dad

AAA Battery: Poison Oak Nervousness Incarnate what do you think?

Poison Oak: Better than anything I've got

Beep Boop: NI is at the Medical Centre. Will answer once we're out.

AAA Battery: Oh yeah, they had their appointment today!

Ringo: Is everything alright?

Beep Boop: Nothing physically wrong

Captain Hardass: It's obvious she has anxiety; I assume it's something for that.

Coubertin: That's her business. We can wait.

Beep Boop: Thanks Coubertin

Paul turned his attention away from the group chat and looked towards the back, where Megan was still yet to come out of. His clock told him that it had only been five minutes, and there was no doubt she had a lot to talk about.

He tensed as another student came in. He managed not to look at them as they checked in and went to sit down. Once sat down they were instantly on their phone, ignoring Paul as much as he was ignoring them.

Fine by him.

Although, the silence was swiftly becoming unbearable.

Thankfully, Megan appeared not long after, and Paul stood up to meet her. She gave him a tight smile before going to the front desk to book another appointment for next week.

Once they were outside, Paul asked the obvious question.

"How did it go?"

"Okay," Megan responded. "Nothing new. Not sure if bad enough for medication, although I doubt it. Going to try and make it a weekly thing to just talk," Megan fiddled with her sleeves and rubbed her lower left arm. "I didn't mention, this, yet," she didn't need to elaborate; Paul knew what she was talking about. "Maybe next time."

Paul made a noise of agreement. "You do need to mention it."

"I know," Megan mumbled. "Couldn't bring myself to say it."

Paul nodded to himself. Slowly, giving her plenty of time to step away, he lifted his arm up and rested it on her shoulders. Gently, without breaking stride, he pulled her closer into a walking hug.

"Thanks Paul," she mumbled.

"Would you like to grab lunch before we go?"

"Yeah, thanks."

Paul began to gently steer her deeper into campus before he realised something.

"I have no idea where to eat here."

Megan chuckled low in her throat. "This way."

She led the way to the campus cafe. Given the time of day it was reasonably full with students, some eating, some talking, some organising study groups.

Some of the human lecturers were also there, which was a rare sight these days. Mostly the art based subjects.

Paul found a seat while Megan grabbed a sandwich and a drink from the shelf. She quickly paid for them and joined Paul at the cheap plastic table.

"The group's had some name ideas if you want to look," Paul suggested as Megan unwrapped her sandwich and took a bite.

Without pausing in eating Megan took out her phone and checked the group chat. With one finger she began to type.

Nervousness Incarnate: Fine by me

AAA Battery: Hey NI! How are you?

Nervousness Incarnate: Okay, don't really want to talk about it.

Megan put her phone back in her pocket, ignoring it pinging as she ate.

"That bad huh?" Paul asked, and Megan shrugged.

"I-I don't really know," she admitted. "It felt good to talk about it, but now I have, I don't know how to feel. It sounded so stupid when I said it out loud, but if it makes me feel like crap then it isn't stupid? I don't know. I don't know."

Paul hadn't seen her so down since he first met her, but now he wasn't so sure how to handle it. She put her sandwich down, and didn't look too keen on picking it up again.

"Would you like to go home?"

"Yeah."

Paul packed up the sandwich and stored it in his coat pocket while Megan grabbed the water bottle. The entire trip home was silent, but Paul made sure he was never too far.

* * *

Disclaimer; I've never been to therapy so I don't know if this is a reasonable reaction to have, but I think it fits with Megan.

As for the name, I'm not going to have other options for it (although if you have any, I'd love to hear them) mostly because I just like it and I think it works.

The love thing is something I remember hearing, but when I tried to Google it a bunch of different stuff came up. What Megan said works better than nearly everything else that Google sent up.

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) Say Nothing. Say something unrelated

(Megan) Express nerves. Express thanks

(Paul) Strike up a conversation


	20. Chapter 20

**F bombs incoming!**

 **3AM Sunday 7** **th** **November 2038**

Sleep wasn't something Paul did. He was an android, he didn't need to. However, in the small hours there was nothing to do and no one to talk to, so he would enter a stasis state. If he had to compare it a human thing, he would say it was closer to meditation than sleep.

As such, when Megan's phone went off, he was instantly alert.

She'd left it by the computer, which was unusual, but she'd been off since the appointment. His internal clock informed him that it was around 3AM, so this call could be important.

He got up from the couch and went to knock on Megan's bedroom door.

"Megan!" he called, "Megan your cell phone is ringing."

There was no noise from the other side. "Megan? Are you awake?"

Not even a half asleep groan. Paul felt something thud into his gut and his LED starting to flicker red.

"Megan, I'm opening the door," he declared, and after a short pause for her to register this, he opened the door.

Megan wasn't in her room. Her sheets were tossed aside and her window was wide open, letting in the early November air.

"Megan!" Paul hovered for a second on the threshold, before throwing caution to the wind and entering the room, running for the window. His LED settled on red.

Sticking his head out of the window informed him that the building's fire escape stairs were right underneath her window. So she could have gone down, or up onto the roof.

Paul thought about it for a second. If Megan felt like crap, there was no way she was going to risk coming across people. Up it was then.

Paul carefully pulled himself through the open window, as it didn't open very far and Megan was a lot smaller than him, and deposited himself on the metal fire escape. It rattled and groaned under his weight, creaking in complaint, but otherwise, it held.

Megan's apartment was halfway up the building, so Paul had a little way to run to get to the top, not that it was a problem. What was a problem was that the fire escape stopped by the last apartment.

Looking up, the roof wasn't that far, you could drop down from there onto the metal stairs with little problem. Getting up there on the other hand...

Paul scanned around for a moment. He could propel himself up from standing, although he couldn't be sure if he would reach. The other options were use the top apartment's window sill, or boost himself up onto the railing and jump from there.

The railing was a little higher up, but narrow, so he decided that his best option was the window sill for a little extra height.

Once up there he jumped, grabbing onto the edge with ease and pulling himself up. He stepped up onto the roof, and his heart shot into his throat when he saw where Megan was sitting. With her legs dangling over the edge.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Paul demanded, although Megan didn't jump. The fire escape hardly made for a stealthy approach.

"Sitting. You could have gone by the indoor stairs you know," she inclined her head back towards a concrete lump with a door in it that probably housed the stairs.

"You weren't in your room. I panicked," Paul confessed. "Please get away from the edge."

"I don't plan on throwing myself off."

"You could still fall, Megan, please."

"Alright, alright," Megan moved back away from the edge, sitting cross legged on the roof. Only now did Paul's LED shift from red, going to yellow.

Paul stood there a moment, the wind tugging at his hair and polo shirt as he came across another problem.

"Aren't you cold up here?"

"A little bit," Megan admitted, and Paul had had enough.

"Look, I know that appointment must have been, harrowing, in it's own way, but this is ridiculous! You don't usually indulge in such reckless behaviour!"

"You've known me less than a month," Megan looked at him, squinting slightly from the wind. "I don't think you're the authority on what's normal for me."

"I've lived with you for nearly a month," Paul corrected, slowly walking over, LED blue now. "There's a difference. Especially since you hardly ever leave your apartment."

Megan conceded that point, and didn't move away as Paul sat down next to her.

"What's wrong?" Paul asked.

"Sorry," Megan fiddled with some wisps of hair the wind was blowing about. "That meeting, I guess you could call it, threw me off. The idea of medication, I mean for fucks sake! I don't have the money for that!"

"Is that really all this is?"

"Anxiety can flare up about little things," Megan reminded. "I wish I could make it stop doing that, but right now, I can't."

"I somehow doubt the prospect of medication is the only thing that made you come up here," Paul raised an eyebrow, and Megan moved to fiddling with a loose thread in her pyjamas. "It's 3AM, not far off freezing and hardly comfortable up here."

Megan didn't answer immediately, but didn't brush it off either.

"Something Alex said, among other things," she finally said.

"What did Alex say?"

Megan took a deep breath, bracing herself, since Paul wasn't going to drop this.

"You know how they were 'shipping' us?"

"Yes, but they meant that platonically, right? In that they see as good friends?"

Megan nodded. "Yeah, that's what they said. They then sent me a message saying that..." Megan paused and took another deep breath. "Here goes nothing I guess. Do you like me?"

"Of course I like you," Paul sounded very confused. "I would not stayed have with you if I didn't."

"Okay, let me elaborate," Megan fiddled with her hands, finding this annoyingly similar to some bad high school drama. "When I said that, I meant, do you have any, romantic, feelings? Towards me?" Megan visibly cringed as she asked that, and Paul frowned in confusion, LED spinning yellow.

"I, don't, think so?" Paul looked at Megan, face the epitome of uncertainty and his hands moved around to reflect this. "What do romantic feelings, feel like?"

"I am the wrong person to ask," Megan responded dryly.

"Oh yes, you don't feel or understand romance," Paul remembered from earlier. "Let's assume, no."

Megan relaxed with a sigh of relief. "Oh thank fuck!"

"You know, for someone who doesn't understand sexual urges, you do say 'fuck' a lot," Paul noted.

"I'm allowed to swear!" Megan protested, grinning a little before it dropped. "Speaking of which, it's fucking freezing up here."

Paul nodded in agreement. "Let's get inside."

He stood up and went towards the door to go to the stairs, but paused when he realised that Megan was heading for the fire escape.

"Don't you want to go inside?"

"Yeah," Megan responded, "but I forgot my keys, and I assume you left my window open?"

"I did," Paul followed her over to the edge of the roof where the fire escape was. He intended to go ahead of Megan and catch her when she dropped down.

Instead, Megan dropped down before he got there with surprising ease and grace, and when Paul looked over the edge he realised that she had landed on the railing. She dropped down onto the main platform without batting an eyelid and looked up at Paul expectantly.

"You coming?"

"Yes," Paul dropped down off the roof and landed without causing too much distress to the fire escape. "I don't know whether to be alarmed at how easily you did that, or impressed."

"I've done it enough times," Megan shrugged, and that was as far as she elaborated as they walked down. "Why'd you come into my room anyway?"

"Oh!" Paul had almost forgotten. "Your phone started ringing next to your computer and I went to get you, but you weren't in your room."

"Did you see who it was?" Megan asked, and Paul shook his head. "Okay, well, it's three in the morning, must be at least somewhat important."

They got back to Megan's apartment and with the ease of someone who did this more often than Paul liked to think about, Megan swung herself back into her room. Paul got back through with a similar lack of grace as he did when he left, but managed not to fall in a heap on Megan's bedroom floor.

Megan was already walking through to get her phone, and Paul followed, after shutting the window.

In the main living space Megan winced as she looked at her missed call.

"James, why the hell are you calling me at 3AM?" she asked herself, but called him back just in case.

"Who's James?" Paul asked, walking back to the couch.

"My brother," Megan responded just before James picked up, and Paul's hearing easily picked up both sides of the conversation.

 _"Hey Megs."_

"Hi James," Megan responded. "I got a missed call from you, everything okay?"

 _"Y-yeah. I figured you'd be up at this time. C-can we talk?"_

Megan frowned. "About what?"

 _"Just, stuff."_

"Er, yeah, that's not a lot to go off of," Megan started to pace as she talked, but in a relaxed way rather than a stressful way. "We don't exactly have a lot of common ground to talk about."

 _"No, you're right. Sorry I bothered you."_

That instantly got alarms blaring in Megan's head. "James Carroll don't you dare hang up."

 _"...Yes mom,_ " the surprise in James's voice was clear.

"What's wrong," Megan asked plainly.

 _"... I don't want to talk it about."_

"You want a distraction, okay. Here's a question for you," Megan had slightly sneaky idea. "If androids gained autonomy, free will and emotions, do you think they should be able to have equal rights?"

 _"That's a weird ass question,"_ James stated, but considered it. _"Yeah I guess. Only question would be proving it."_

"Fair point," Megan paused, and both she and Paul caught the clink of a glass. "James, have you been drinking?"

 _"A little bit,"_ he admitted. _"I felt like shit, and I thought it would help."_

Megan sighed. "James, it seems like it would help in the moment, but trust me, it makes it worse. Where are you?"

 _"In my dorm, why?"_

"Alright, listen to me, because here's what you're going to do," Megan started, and Paul was surprised how easily she took charge of whatever this situation was. "You're going to either pour what's left of your glass back into the bottle or down the sink. I don't care which."

 _"Alright, alright,"_ James grumbled.

"I don't hear you doing it," Megan prompted, and James audibly groaned before moving. A few seconds later the sound of liquid hitting liquid passed through the phone's speaker.

 _"Done."_

"Good, now you're going to get a new glass and pour water into it."

There was a clinking of glass and the sound of a tap being turned on and off.

 _"Done."_

"Now, I would suggest drinking it, if you want to sleep tonight."

James had committed to listening to her, so did as he was asked before saying he was done.

"Now, pour another glass of water, and put it on your bedside table."

This took a little longer, and some muffled swearing as James seemed to walk into things, but eventually he claimed he was done.

"Finally, go to bed. Drink the water in the morning because you'll probably have a hangover."

 _"M'kay."_ James mumbled. _"G'night Megs."_

"Goodnight James. Talk to you tomorrow?"

 _"Yeah. Night."_

James hung up and Megan put the phone back on her desk.

"What was that about?" Paul asked.

"It, it seems my perfect little brother, is having some trouble," Megan said slowly, as if she couldn't quite believe it herself.

"Okay," Paul paused. "What else were going to suggest he do with the water?"

Megan smirked. "I was going to suggest he threw it in his face to sober him up, but that would jolt him awake and this late, he'll want to sleep."

Paul snickered a little at that.

"It's weird," Megan looked over at Paul. "I should feel bad for him. The amount of times I've felt low... Yet, this is oddly satisfying."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Megan shrugged. "Vindication perhaps? Knowing that my perfect brother can fuck up as well."

"I'll take your word on that," Paul decided. "Also, are you really that used to going up onto the roof? Because falling onto that railing is incredibly dangerous."

Megan's eyes flicked back to her phone for a second. "I was in my high cheer leading team."

"...That explains that," Paul nodded. "Why didn't you say earlier?"

"There's a stereotype with being a cheer leader that I don't fit. I only did it for a year anyway. They just wanted someone small to chuck around and the politics drove me up that wall," she waved off before yawning. "I'm going back to bed. Night Paul,"

"Good night," he responded, lying back on the couch in an imitation of sleep as Megan's bedroom door closed. This time he kept an ear out for the window opening, but thankfully he didn't hear it.

* * *

 **A longer chapter this time to make up for the shorter ones I've been putting up.**

 **Again, I've never actually been to therapy, so I have no idea if it can leave you this out of sorts at any point. Also, a reminder of the fact that Paul hasn't really known Megan that long. Yeah they basically live together, but you can't know everything about a person in less than a month.**

 **This is also roughly the halfway point! We're halfway through this story! I did not think there would be this many chapters, holy crow.**

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **(Paul) Go down the fire escape (Would see Megan from the ground and run back up the fire escape, leading to different dialogue)**

 **(Paul) Express concern over the fire escape. Be impressed.**

 **(Megan) Ask James about football**

 **(Megan) Tell James to throw water in his fac** e


	21. Chapter 21

**8AM Sunday 7** **th** **November 2038**

Paul was writing in his notebook when Megan staggered out of her room at 8AM. She hadn't bothered changing out of her pyjamas, or brushing her hair before she went to her phone, scrolling through her recents.

"Morning James!" she said brightly down the phone, and both she and Paul smothered a laugh when a groan greeted her.

 _"What time is it?"_ James asked, voice thick with tiredness.

"About eight in morning. Drink the water on your bedside table. You'll feel better."

 _"Alright. How did you even know that was there?"_

"I'm guessing you don't remember last night?"

There was a pause as James took a drink and recalled what happened five hours ago.

 _"Oh God. I'm sorry Megs. I didn't mean to drop that on you."_

"Clearly you did, given that you called me, and no one else."

 _"I was drunk. I wasn't thinking."_

Megan sighed. "Look. I'm, flattered, that you came to me. If you need to talk."

 _"You've got enough shit in your head. You don't need mine."_

"That's not how it works. I've got a bunch of experience with dealing with mental shit, so I can help out."

 _"Thanks Megan,"_ James sounded a bit more awake now.

"...No worries," Megan half mumbled, "you want to talk now?"

 _"No, no thanks. Another time. Thanks."_

"Okay, stay safe."

 _"Will do. Love you Megan,"_

"Love you too," Megan hung up and sat down in her desk chair.

"Sorted?" Paul asked, and Megan nodded.

"For now," she ran a hand through her knotted hair. "I'll let him tell mom and dad in his own time."

"Shall I get started on breakfast?" Paul asked, standing up.

"Exactly how bored or frustrated are you going to be if I try?"

"Very," Paul responded. "You're terrible at cooking."

"You could teach me."

That made Paul pause. "I, I suppose I could. Not now though. You're too tired."

"Fair point," Megan yawned, standing up. Paul put his book down and went over to the kitchen.

"You get dressed. I'll handle this here."

"Aye aye captain," Megan mock saluted as she walked back to her bedroom, and Paul smiled at her as she left.

* * *

 **10AM Sunday 7** **th** **November 2038**

"Welcome to the third meeting of Android Allies!" Alex crowed, beaming broadly. They weren't on campus this time. Sunday was the only day everyone could agree on, and Alex couldn't get a room on such short notice, so everyone was at their parent's house, who were away. They were all sitting in their lounge in a rough semi circle, with Alex at the front. "Has anyone got anything to report?"

"How are you so cheery?" Nathan groaned. "It's too early for this shit."

"It's 10AM," Alex defended. "That's not early."

"It's early for a Sunday!"

"I tried the hockey team," Oscar started, interrupting Nathan's tired tirade. "Similar response to the football team."

"Gaining a little ground in the European online community," Nathan sighed, rubbing his eyes. He still seemed annoyed, but had given in. "Not great, but in triple figures, so, something."

"Hey, triple figures is good," Alex assured. "That's a lot of people. 50 people fit in the last room we were in, so that's at least double that."

"Getting some word out among support societies," Ivy said, actually somewhat cautiously, and Megan looked up from her note taking. This had not been mentioned on the group chat. "Mixed response, going to wait and test people before letting them in on this."

"Okay," Alex responded. "Can you tell me next time you plan to do that? I'm all for a recruitment drive, but we want to take this, not slow, but not get any haters."

Ivy nodded, and Allison leaned back, about to say something.

"So, do we have any future plans yet?" she asked in an attempt at being civil, and a muscle in Alex's jaw twitched.

"I was going to bring that question to the group," Alex decided before standing up straight. "So, beyond spreading word of the idea, should we start doing anything else? Protests? A stall at a college event? Any other ideas?"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Julia spoke up, drawing everyone's gaze. "Deviants aren't well known, and if we make a big deal about androids having free will and outing deviants, it could escalate, badly."

"What do you think will happen?" Lucas asked.

"A lot of the evidence, solid evidence, not just missing androids, show deviants being violent. If we start protests on android rights, we need to give reason and evidence, and the evidence we have isn't great," Julia kept talking like she hadn't heard Lucas at all.

"That didn't answer the question," Maggie stated.

"The reaction would be violent," Paul added in a monotone, LED under his hat blinking red for a second as he thought about it.

"It has the potential to be," Julia agreed reluctantly. "A lot of people already hate androids, wouldn't this give people a reason to completely destroy androids before they can go deviant?"

"Or, people might realise what they're doing is wrong and support androids," Alex raised hopefully. Everyone looked at them sceptically and they deflated. "Yeah, I know. Wishful thinking."

"It-it could get a-a few more people," Megan suggested, fully expecting to get shot down.

"Maybe," Lucas thought, "but it's probably not worth the risk. Small awareness raising, then we build up."

"Oh yeah," Alex leaned against the wall again. "How's it going with you sister?"

"They're starting to reach out to other high schools. It's slow progress, but it's happening," Lucas reported, and Alex nodded.

"That's an idea, get in touch with other universities," Alex thought out loud. "Anyone got siblings in college?"

Megan didn't look like she was going to speak up, so Paul decided to.

"Megan's brother is in college," he stated, but Megan quickly jumped in.

"I don't know how interested he'll be," she said quickly.

"I thought he was," Paul responded, and Megan shook her head.

"He was drunk when he said it."

"Maybe ask him again," Alex prompted, and Megan shrugged. "Anyone else?"

"My sibling is still in middle school," shrugged Ivy.

"Only child," was Maggie's input.

"Sister's no longer in school," Allison added.

"No siblings," said Oscar, "but I'm close with my cousins, and one of them is in college, the other in high school. I'll talk to them."

Alex nodded at him, smiling as everyone continued.

"Nothing from me," Julia shook her head.

"My family is still in the UK, and I've already told them," was all Nathan had, and as eyes turned Paul realised in a panic that he was going to have to make something up.

Alex opened their mouth to bail him out, but Paul got there first.

"No siblings, not close with my cousins," he shrugged nonchalantly while his LED flashed under the beanie.

"Okay, everyone who can get in touch with family, that is your homework," Alex started. "Everyone else, think about friends, friends of the family. Also think of ways to spread the message locally, we can decide in the group chat."

"In other news, which may harm our cause," Allison shifted in their seat. "Word is Carl Manfred, the painter, and his son, were attacked by an android in the elder's home the other night. Most likely deviant, although who knows why."

"Carl Manfred had a rare android," Maggie spoke up, making everyone turn to her. She seemed unbothered by the attention and kept speaking. "An RK200, and his son is into Red Ice, so it could all have been a misunderstanding."

Julia looked at Maggie oddly. "How the hell did you know that?"

Maggie shrugged. "I'm an art student, Carl Manfred is huge in the art world. Of course I know about this."

Julia thought for a second. "If the police are involved then there'll be a file, but it'll be hard to get hold of just yet."

"Don't worry about it," Alex waved off. "We'll just have to keep our ear to the ground on that one. Speaking of RK's, any word on the RK800?"

"Yeah," Julia nodded. "Arrived Friday night, long after our meeting. Anderson kicked up a fuss and Reed was an asshole, but neither of those are new. Also freaky, he got shot and another replaced him first thing yesterday morning. He's like a hydra."

"Except, only one appeared, and not two," Lucas corrected. "And it was on the news yesterday."

"You get my point."

Paul felt the odd urge to swallow. This, Connor, was active, and working with Detroit Police. He didn't know this android's capabilities, but he imagined that if he was spotted by this guy, he was fucked.

"Well, we shouldn't have to worry about him," Alex shrugged. "We're deviant sympathisers, not harbourers. At worst we'll be questioned, we'll be fine," they seemed to aim that last bit at Megan, who didn't look up from their notes. "Anything else?"

No one offered anything else, and Alex nodded. "Okay, let's draw that to close. You have your homework, and Nathan can go back to bed."

"Thank fuck!" the Brit cried and he was out of the room as fast as he could. Everyone else took their time packing up and slowly said their goodbyes.

Megan didn't take long to pack up, but Paul seemed to be dawdling.

"Hey Paul," Ivy asked, making him jump. His mind was all over the place.

"Yeah?" he turned to face her.

"Did you dye your hair?" she asked, peering closely at him. He rocked back on his heels a little bit, hoping she wouldn't look too close. He'd put make up on again, but didn't know if it would hold up when scrutinised.

"Er, yeah, I did. Not long after the last meeting."

"Looks good," Ivy pulled back. "If you want to keep it going, tomato juice is a lot cheaper than hair dye. Makes it really vibrant if you keep applying it."

"Thanks, Ivy."

Ivy put her hands into the pockets of her jeans, one leg black, one white, almost identical to a pair Alex had. "Megan doesn't seem like a social person. How did you two meet?"

"We, er, live in the same apartment block. She was having some, trouble, and I helped her out."

"Right, and nothing else?"

"What else is there?" Paul was confused, and Ivy chuckled.

"Keep that innocence. You don't see that very often," Ivy patted his shoulder and walked off, leaving Paul bemused in her wake.

* * *

 **We're getting close now, we're getting close now! A few more chapters and things really kick off!**

 **With Connor being on the news, that is in the game. When you're waiting for Hank in the precinct and you have the whole coffee thing with Reed there's a news report playing and it mentions Connor, not by name, but it mentions him. There's also an Easter Egg about a best selling book I think called 'Do Humans Dream of Organic Sheep' or something like that. Got a laugh out of me.**

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **(Megan) Agree with Paul. Argue**

 **(Paul) Agree to teach Megan to cook now**

 **(Paul) say nothing**

 **(Paul) Let Megan mention her brother. Nudge her to mention. Do Nothing**

 **(Megan) Mention James**

 **(Paul) Let Alex cover him. (make AA suspicious?)**


	22. Chapter 22

**Quackedy quack-I'm glad you're so enthusiastic about this story! As a reminder, I update every Monday and Thursday, and if I know that I won't be able to, I'll try to let you guys know in advance.**

* * *

 **10.35AM Sunday 7** **th** **November 2038**

Eventually, it was just Alex, Paul and Megan left in the lounge.

"You two okay?" Alex asked, and Megan looked at Paul.

"I'm fine," she shrugged. "Paul?"

"I, I would to talk to Alex alone. Please."

Megan blinked in surprise, but swung her bag over her shoulders. "O-okay. I'll, er, use the bathroom."

"Upstairs and to the left," Alex gave directions, and Megan followed them. Once the door fell shut Alex turned to Paul.

"What's gotten you so riled up?" they asked. "Because if it's Connor then as long as you don't draw attention to yourself or break the law you'll be fine!"

"Like not wearing android identifiers, hiding my LED and joining a group for android rights," Paul raised his eyebrow.

"...Fair point," Alex conceded. "Although, we are a small group and the identifiers are easy to get away with."

Paul shrugged that point, and shifted awkwardly. "It's also about Megan."

"What about her?" Alex had an odd smirk on their face.

"Did you put it in her head that I had romantic feelings for her?"

"You mean you don't?" Alex asked.

"I don't know! I've had emotions for less than two weeks! You guys have them for years and still don't know what love feels like!"

"Okay, I can't speak from experience, but I've heard enough times to get an idea," Alex tapped their fingers together in thought, apparently unconcerned by Paul's outburst. "From what I hear, the person you like makes your stomach feel like it's full of butterflies. They can also make you feel really happy around them. Er, that's all I've got," Alex shrugged. "Sorry. Ivy will have a better idea."

Paul nodded, coming to the same conclusion he had the other night.

"Not romantic love then. Okay. Thought I'd check with someone who might understand a bit more."

"I'm still not a good person to ask, but okay," Alex threw their arms up and shrugged over dramatically. "I'm still shipping you two."

"Great," Paul sighed. "No pressure then."

"Why? Have you two been fighting?"

"No, no. Megan's just..."

"Been Megan?"

"I suppose so, yes. You've known her longer than I have."

"You've been good for her," Alex's expression softened. "And not everyone's easy to get along with all the time. There are ups and downs."

"We haven't been fighting a lot," Paul assured. "She just seems to like to scare me."

"She does that sometimes," Alex smirked. "Oh, I also wanted to ask her how her appointment went!"

"I wouldn't," Paul advised. "She hasn't said anything to me about it. She just gets very quiet, and hides on the roof at 3AM."

"Wait, what?" Alex asked, half laughing.

"That's what scared me."

"I can imagine," Alex was still laughing. "That's Megan for you I guess."

Paul found himself chuckling. "Anyway, I suppose we'd better go."

"I'd say you can stay if you want, but I don't think Megan would be okay with that."

"Yeah," Paul agreed.

"Glad to know you two know me so well," Megan said through the door, making Alex snort with laughter, and Paul freeze. How much had she heard?

"So, you sticking around, or are you going to go?" Alex asked.

"I've got to catch up on some work. Paul? How about you?"

Paul found himself in an odd position. He wasn't bound to stay with Megan. He could easily spend time with Alex if he wanted to.

Seeing that Paul was taking some time to respond, Alex stepped in.

"I need to work on some essays too. So if you two would..." they made shooing motions with their hands.

"Okay. We'll go," Paul felt relieved, which was obvious to both Alex and Megan.

"C'mon then. We've got a bus to catch," Megan smiled, and Paul followed her out of the house.

* * *

 **12PM Sunday 7** **th** **November 2038**

Megan stared at her phone, thumb hanging over the call button. She figured she'd better get calling her brother out of the way, but so far hadn't worked up the nerve to do it.

"You've been staring at your phone for five minutes," Paul informed, not looking up from the book he was reading.

"I have no idea what I'm going to say," Megan admitted, chuckling nervously. "He'll be suspicious as well. Calling him twice in one day."

"Well, he vaguely remembers the 3AM conversation," Paul thought, "Just say the truth. You want clarification."

"But what should I start with?"

"I believe 'hello' is standard practice."

"You know what I mean," Megan responded irritably.

"Ask him how he is and say that you want to ask him something. Then ask it."

"You make it sound so fucking simple."

"Because, it is?" Paul was uncertain. In theory calling someone was simple and easy. Yet Megan managed to make it look the exact opposite.

"It's supposed to be," Megan sighed. "I know it's stupid and there's not even a definite reason why I'm nervous about this. I just am!"

Paul put his book down. "Stop, breathe, try again."

Megan looked at him, slightly irritated, but followed his advice. She closed her eyes, focused on her breathing for a minute. When she opened them again, she stared at the green button before steeling her resolve and pressing it.

She placed it against her ear and listened to the phone connecting to her brother's.

 _"Hey Megan, everything okay?"_ James picked up fairly quickly, sounding concerned.

"Yeah, everything's good here, you?" Megan cringed at how awkward that was, but James didn't comment on it.

 _"Yeah, better, thanks,"_ James sighed. _"Is there any reason you called?"_

Here it was, the big question. "Do you remember the android question I asked you last night?"

 _"Vaguely. I was drunk, remember? Ask me again."_

"Yeah, um," Megan swallowed. "If, if androids gained emotions and self awareness, do you think they should have the same rights as us?"

 _"... I thought you were taking History, not Philosophy."_

"Philosophy comes up," Megan assured. "Just, answer the question."

 _"I mean, when you word it like that, I guess, but, how would you prove it?"_

Megan paused. "Elaborate."

 _"Well, how do we prove they aren't simulating it for, survival reasons? Self preservation or something? Humans emote and empathise easily right?"_

"And humans can be really cruel for no reason," Megan countered. "To other humans."

 _"Okay, but still, how do we know they aren't simulating it?"_

"Does it matter? Don't humans lie about their own feelings all the time?"

 _"There's a difference between pride and not feeling anything."_

"People who are grieving, people with depression, hell, even psychopaths," Megan was getting started on a tangent. "All of these people either don't feel for various reasons or physically can't. Are they less than human?"

 _"Well, psychopaths kill people."_

"Most don't, and anyone with mental illness so bad they don't feel anything don't usually start killing sprees either."

 _"Some do."_

"Most don't," Megan reiterated. "Humans are varied creatures, going back to androids, if they feel and become sentient then surely they'll be just as varied."

 _"What are you even trying to get at anymore?"_ James groaned.

"Trying to give you things to think about with the original question."

 _"Yeah, all you've done is compare androids to psychopaths,"_

"That wasn't what I was getting at!" Megan ran her hand across her face.

 _"That's all I heard."_

"I'm trying to say that for whatever reason there are humans who can't empathise or really feel emotion. Does whether androids feel emotion or simulate it matter?"

 _"I, suppose not,"_ James also appeared to running his hand over his face from the slightly exasperated way he said that. _"I, I don't know Megan. That's a big question. Hell, is that even possible?"_

Megan looked at Paul, suddenly uncertain on how to proceed. If she said yes, he would ask how she knew. If she said no, he would ask why she was asking.

"I, guess?" Megan ended up wimping out and going neutral. "I mean, it wouldn't surprise me."

 _"Okay, what brought this on? Something someone said?"_ James, more exasperated than ever. _"Because if you're going off of what someone said, then you really need to think about that a little more before quizzing me alright?"_

"I, erm," Megan struggled to regain her thoughts.

 _"It's a nice idea Megs, but I don't see it happening. I've got to go meet the guys, so, see you later?"_

Megan sighed, defeated. "See you later."

James hung up and Megan put her phone on her desk.

"Waste of time," she muttered.

"Well, you tried," Paul offered, "although I don't appreciate the comparison to psychopaths."

Megan groaned. "I'm sorry! It was the first thing that came to mind."

"You are right," Paul admitted, "psychopaths aren't usually killers, but the word doesn't have great connotations."

"I know," Megan groaned, sitting in her desk chair. "I'll try not to say that if I ever have to defend androids verbally."

"That would definitely give the wrong impression," Paul agreed.

"You're not angry about that?"

"I know you and I know what you meant," Paul sighed. "If anyone else had said it, then, yes, I would be angry. With you I'm just irritated."

"Thanks," Megan smiled. "And, I know you're bored. You don't have to stick around here you know."

Paul went quiet.

"Paul?"

"I, I know. I'm just, comfortable, here."

"We need to get you out more."

"Says you," Paul looked over the back of the couch at Megan. "You only ever leave to go to college."

"Yeah, but you're not riddled with anxiety," Megan countered.

"You're not the one breaking the law every time you leave the building!" Paul shot back, surprising himself and Megan with the anger in his voice.

Megan leaned away from him in shock, eyes wide. He quickly tried to bring that back.

"Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"It's okay," Megan was quick to reassure.

"No, it's not. Sorry, that had been building up," Paul put his book down and put his head in his hands. "It's not your fault."

Megan stayed in her seat for a minute, not sure how to proceed. For this one, she had no idea how to react. Paul sat back up and retrieved his book.

"Let's just, forget that."

"No," Megan disagreed quietly. "If it's something you're worried about, then..."

"Then what?" Paul asked when Megan struggled to continue. "Are you going to stop the police from arresting me if someone knocks my hat off?"

For that, Megan didn't need to answer. They both knew she'd want to, but she wouldn't be able to.

"Is there any way to get rid of your LED?" she suddenly asked.

"I, suppose," Paul mused. "While it is attached to my cranium, nothing would be damaged if I removed it.

"So, would you? Get rid of it?"

Paul considered it, and struggled to get it into words. His LED was as much a part of him as his nose, his arm, and he said as much.

"And if you needed to survive, you could cut those off," Megan offered. "It's extreme, but doable without dying."

Paul shook his head. "Then I'd rather not, not unless I had to."

"Okay," Megan nodded to herself. "Okay."

The two settled into an easy silence, doing their own thing.

* * *

 **So, a but of a jump around all over the place today. Paul is going to have a few more of those whiplash mood changes, but that's just because he's still learning, and therefore still struggling to get a grip on things when emotion overtakes him for a second.**

 **Up to you if you want to believe that Megan was listening by the door for the first scene or not. I can't decide myself.**

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **(Paul) Stay at Alex's (would lead to a different scene with Alex and the phone call scene going without Paul and subsequent argument). Go back with Megan.**

 **(Megan) Tell James it is possible (likely to out Paul). Tell James it isn't.**

 **(Megan) Agree to forget Paul's outburst.**


	23. Chapter 23

**1.45PM Monday 8** **th** **November 2038**

Megan was listening to this morning's lecture when she heard her phone go off. She paused the lecture to look at the message, but was distracted by Paul stopping his clean up from lunch and going over to the tv.

He switched it on as Megan checked her phone, revealing a message from Alex.

AAA Battery: Guys! Turn on the news!

Megan jolted as a voice came from the tv, and she looked over. Her mouth fell open.

On the screen was an android without their skin, which was freaky enough to look at. Once she'd overcome her surprise at seeing the android's, exo skeleton, she assumed, she could take in what they were saying.

"...We are no longer machines, we are a new intelligent species, and the time has come for you to accept who we really are. Therefore, we ask that you grant us the rights that we're entitled to. We demand freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly, as guaranteed by the first amendment of the US Constitution. We demand that humans recognise androids as a living species and each android as a person in their own right. We demand the right to vote and elect our own representatives. We demand that all crimes against androids be punished in the same way as crimes against humans. We demand the right to own private property, so we may maintain our dignity and that of the home. We ask that you recognise our dignity, our hopes, and our rights. Together, we can live in peace and build a better future, for humans and androids. This message is the hope of a people. You gave us life. And now the time has come for you to give us freedom."

Megan couldn't see Paul's reaction to all of this, as his back was to her, but she felt a mix of nerves, disbelief, and excitement. This, this is what Android Allies had been hoping for. Maybe not in so many words, but she assumed that this had been their end goal.

Before she could think too much more of it, someone else to the broadcast room yelled.

"They're coming!"

"Markus!" someone else cried, revealing the name of the skinless android.

"Let's go," Markus spoke this time, and the image froze, and cut off.

A spinning yellow Channel 16 logo took their place, and silence reigned for a few moments.

"Paul?" Megan started, but didn't get any further as the android spun around, leapt over the couch and grabbed her, lifting her up in to a hug.

Megan yelped in surprise as she was hugged, but quickly stifled her complaints. She could feel his grin in her shoulder, and his laughter shook his entire frame. She'd never seen him so ecstatically happy.

"Yes! Yes! YES!" he crowed, dancing around the room, still hugging Megan. "This is it! This is what we needed!"

Megan couldn't help but smile with him, his enthusiasm infectious.

All of a sudden he put her down rushed back over to the tv. He picked up the remote and started flicking through news channels.

"Let's see what people have to say about this," he said, clearly still grinning. "They have to listen now!"

Paul flicked through a bunch of different channels, even going back to Channel 16 once they had recovered. The celebratory mood faded and Megan felt something solid set into her stomach as they continued to listen.

"We interrupt our scheduled programming to bring you these images, which have just been broadcast on Detroit's citywide news channel."

"...a group of androids infiltrated the Stratford Tower and hacked into the broadcasting system of local news network Channel 16."

"What looks like an android without it's skin listed a series of requests and demanded equal rights for androids..."

"...the operation was covert and resulted in no casualties,"

"These events took place just a few feet from this studio. But nobody was alerted to the danger. "

"Danger!?" Paul scoffed. "What danger? There were no casualties!"

"If this message is verified and the authors really are androids; that would have serious repercussions for national security."

"Claims for equal rights seem to be at the core of the android's message..."

"...what could be interpreted as a peaceful declaration, but is in fact a spine chilling list of demands-"

"Did you listen to the fucking speech you imbecile?!"Paul roared, aggressively changing the channel as his LED spun red.

"...and it begs the question as to the identity of this android. Are we dealing with an isolated individual or an organised group?"

"Is this an isolated accident, or a sign that technology has become a threat to all of us? After what happened today, can we still trust our machines?"

In a fit frustration Paul flung the remote at the wall hard enough to snap it in two. It hit the wall button first so the channel randomly changed to a nature documentary just before what remained of the remote clattered to the floor.

Paul stared at the tv for a second before collapsing onto the couch and burying his face in his hands. His LED could still be seen, and it was vivid red.

Megan took a few seconds to catch her breath, swallowing hard. Just like that, he had gone from the happiest she'd seen him, to the angriest.

She shuddered at the level of fury in his voice, not that she really blamed him. He had real hope given to him, and snatched from him in a matter of minutes. She wanted to help him now, but had real idea of how to do it.

Plus, that anger... Megan sat down heavily in the kitchen chair, where she'd ended up. She did not want that anger directed at her, intentionally or not.

On her desk, her phone pinged repeatedly as Android Allies no doubt discussed this event and how to proceed. She couldn't bring herself to look at them just yet. Instead she watched Paul, trying to figure out when it was going to be safe to approach him.

After giving him a few minutes of his LED not changing, Megan slowly got up and walked over, giving him plenty of time to react. She cautiously sat on the couch next to him, and when he didn't move, she gently pulled him into a one armed hug.

Paul finally moved, shifting so that he was in a full hug, and buried his head into Megan's shoulder.

"How could they?" he asked. Anger was still there, but it was heavily staunched by sorrow. "How could they take it away from us like that?"

"It's the media," Megan started to rub his back. "They like to sensationalise everything, I'm sure plenty of people would be inspired by what Markus said."

"...I hope you're right," Paul mumbled. "I _really_ hope you're right"

The words seemed to catch in his throat and his grip grew tighter, making Megan suppress a wince.

The two startled as Megan's phone began to ring, and pulled apart. Megan's face creased in confusion, but got off the couch to pick it up.

"It's my brother?" she stated disbelievingly when she saw the Caller ID, but picked up anyway. "James?"

 _"Did you see the thing on tv?"_ James got straight to business.

"Yes. It was hard to miss."

 _"Did you know that was going to happen?"_

"No," Megan had to pause in surprise. "No I did know it was going to happen. Why did you think I would?"

 _"Because you were asking about androids literally yesterday!"_

"I know, spooky right?"

 _"Megan. Tell me the truth, are you involved in this?"_

"Not with whoever did the broadcast, no," Megan admitted, "but I am a member of an android rights group."

There was silence on the other end for a moment. _"Seriously?"_

"Yeah," Megan felt her stomach clench as she waited for a response.

 _"...I want in."_

"Wait, really?"

 _"Yeah. The news is blowing this way out of proportion. 'Spine chilling' my ass. How can I help?"_

"Find people at your college, form your own group," Megan suggested. "You're too far away to help here. If you can, set up Android Allies: Alabama Chapter and go from there."

 _"Got it Megs,"_ James sounded completely serious. _"Stay safe your end, okay? Things might hit the fan after that."_

"Might do, yeah," Megan agreed. "We'll just have to take it as it comes."

There was a sigh the other end. _"Okay. Love ya,"_

"Love you too," Megan half mumbled out of embarrassment, and James hung up. While she had her phone she checked her messages. Most of it was the group freaking out in various ways, and Alex had suggested them doing a protest that day outside of Stratford Tower.

The idea made Megan's stomach twist in nerves, but now did seem to be a good time. Alex, Julia and Allison said they were going to make signs, and try and be there for 3PM at the latest.

"The others are planning to protest at the Stratford Tower," Megan announced, and Paul nodded, showing he had read the messages as well. "Do you want to go?"

"Yes," the response was instantaneous.

"Great," Megan was slightly taken aback. "Let's get ready to go then."

Paul nodded and got up from the couch, but instead of turning to grab his hat, he went straight into the kitchen.

"Paul?" Megan asked, following him, "What are...?" she trailed off as she saw him grab one of the kitchen knives. His free hand travelled around his LED, and before Megan could say anything he brought the knife to his temple. In one swift movement he cut the LED free, revealing the white casing for a second before the skin healed over it, like it had never even been there.

Paul put the knife back, and what remained of the LED rested in his hand. The light was dead, so it was just a clear circle with a little bit of Caucasian skin attached. His fist curled around it and he shoved it deep into his pocket, possibly to deal with later.

"Are, are you okay?" Megan asked, it seemed like a stupid question, since the answer was obvious.

"Yeah," Paul's voice as a little shaky. "I'm okay."

"Alright," Megan nodded slowly, not believing him. "Let's head out then."

Paul nodded, and went to the bathroom to apply some make up to mask his face. Meanwhile Megan got her new pair of boots on and tied her auburn hair back. She found a woolly winter hat and shoved it on as she looked for a coat. It had snowed the night before and she didn't want to take any chances.

Paul emerged from the bathroom, cheeks red to make them look ruddy from the cold. He put on his beanie and coat before putting on the sneakers. He really should have got himself some boots as well, just to blend in. Too late now.

Once dressed they looked at each other, nodded, and left the apartment.

* * *

So, the game finally kicks in. Things can only get interesting from here.

Markus's speech is the one from jacksepticeye's playthrough, and all of the newscasters are quotes from the game.

So, there's going to be some plot threads that might be dropped, since the revolution is happening and no one expected it.

Other Options Flowchart

(Megan) Try and talk to Paul. Leave him alone

(Megan) Don't mention Android Allies (James won't offer to help)

(Megan) Insist that Paul isn't okay


	24. Chapter 24

**3PM Monday 8** **th** **November 2038**

"There are so many people here," Megan muttered, clutching her cardboard sign.

"We'll just have to be loud over them," Alex declared. "Nathan, ready?"

"Almost," the Brit was messing around with a portable keyboard hanging from his shoulders. As he fiddled with it Megan looked around the square. It had already been busier than usual when they arrived, and it had gotten even busier as they set up.

There were a few other protestors, but they weren't for android rights. They were loudly denouncing androids with electronic signs, showing that they had more time to prepare. Megan was worried about how they would react when they started their side.

"Ready!" Nathan called, and Alex nodded.

"Alright, let's get this party started!" they called, and the ten of them all held their signs up. Megan found that hers wasn't going very high, so Paul grabbed her under the armpits and hauled her up. She squeaked in surprise and a little fear before he plonked her on top of his shoulders.

"Better?" he asked, trying to smile, although she could see that he was still tense. She wasn't sure about being so high up. On one hand, she was an easy target. On the other, she wasn't going to get trampled underfoot.

"Yeah, thanks," she tried to smile reassuringly at him before holding her sign up.

Nathan hit some keys on the keyboard, which he had clearly configured, or at least found a setting, that made it sound like drums. Very quickly the area around them was filled with a steady beat, causing heads to turn.

Alex and Allison stood at the front of the group, holding a banner between them. The banner they were holding read 'Androids are people'. Everyone else who held a sign had something similar.

With the beat going, Alex began to shout, and everyone picked up quickly as they began to push through the crowd.

"Android Rights! Android Rights!" they roared in an attempt to be heard over the crowd. To Megan's delight, a few people around them took up the chant, but they were swiftly drowned out by the anti android protest.

"Scrap the androids! Scrap the androids!" they bellowed back, and there were more of them, so the noise was louder.

Megan couldn't see it, but Alex's face twisted in determination while Paul stiffened underneath her.

"What do we want?!" Alex bellowed, and Android Allies called back.

"Equal rights for androids!"

"When do we want it?!"

"Now!"

The anti android group retorted back with the same chant, but with 'scrap androids' instead. Ivy rolled her eyes.

"They're just copying us now!" she yelled, before she started a new chant. "Androids are alive! Androids are alive!"

Android Allies took up the chant, much to the frustration of the other camp. An open gap had formed between the two of them, the more passive crowd taking sides. So far, it was pretty even.

"Down with machines! Down with machines!"

"Free the androids! Free the androids!"

The other group also seemed have a musician, and they blasted their trumpet across the gap mockingly. Nathan responded in kind. With a few strokes of the buttons and keys he played a sad trombone, causing their side to laugh.

Furious, the trumpet player continued to play, and Nathan matched them, fingers dancing on the keys. The two of them made their way to the front of their groups and continued to play aggressively while both sets of protesters quietened down.

"Is this how a protest usually goes?" Paul asked Alex, who shook their head.

"Nope. I'm liking this though. More protests should be done like this," they declared. "Who wants popcorn?"

"We brought popcorn?" Paul asked, and Alex laughed.

"It's a joke."

The trumpet player was running out of steam while Nathan kept going. Eventually they had to retreat, and that's when things started to get ugly.

Megan ducked as a bottle was thrown at her head. It smashed on the ground behind her and she remained ducked over Paul's head as more projectiles came their way.

The already present police started to intervene, but they struggled to stop the stones, bottles and foul language being thrown at Android Allies. Megan felt the urge to clamp her hands over Paul's ears as the other side accused them of having sex with androids, among other things.

"This is getting hairy," Oscar also had to duck, given that he towered over everyone. "We should go."

Allison looked like she was going to disagree, but Alex got their first.

"We can't risk anyone getting seriously hurt. The others are going too far! We need to show we're the bigger party by walking away."

Allison scowled, but nodded.

They put their signs away and began to retreat into the crowd. Paul took Megan off his shoulders, but she still clutched his hand so she wouldn't lose him.

Abuse was still being hurled, and there was a sudden blast of heat and a scream that made them all pause and turn back to look.

Megan saw first and quickly turned back to Paul.

"Don't look!" she cried, loud enough for him to hear, but it was too late.

Everyone saw the android the other side were burning alive.

Paul suddenly surged forward, and it took all of Megan's strength to hold him back.

"What are you doing?!" she cried.

"We have to help him!" Paul shot back and he pulled forward again. This time he dragged Megan with him.

Oscar was the first to intervene, charging over and putting a restraining hand on Paul's shoulder.

"There's nothing we can do," he said, voice sympathetic. "We all want to help. I promise you that. But there's nothing we can do."

"So, we're just going to run like cowards while they burn innocent androids?!" Paul snarled, revealing his aggression for the second time that day.

"If they're willing to burn androids, do you think they're going to stop there?" asked Lucas.

"The police should handle it," Julia assured.

"So what?! The only charges they'll get is destruction of property! Not murder, like it should be!"

"We can't change the law in one day!" Alex shouted back. "I know this sucks," they added more quietly, walking towards Paul. "But if we leave now, we can fight another day. If we stay, we may end up like him," there was an added warning in Alex's words that Paul and Megan picked up on. What they meant to say was that _Paul_ might end up like him.

Paul nodded slowly, still frustrated. "Fine."

The group ducked and weaved through the crowd. Along the way it was decided that Alex, Allison and Julia would stay to drum up support among sympathisers and build up the AA ranks. Everyone else was to head home.

The entire train and bus ride was done in silence between Megan and Paul. Both of them were struggling to get what they'd just seen out of their heads.

"I think I'm going to have nightmares tonight," Megan muttered, and Paul nodded in agreement.

"How could they do that?" he mumbled. "He was screaming, begging for them to stop, and they just _laughed_ at him."

Megan looked at her feet as the bus quietly made its way along the streets.

"Some humans just, aren't human," Megan responded. "Sure, we're a predatory, territorial species, which leads to horrible behaviour. But, since we're not living in the God damn Stone Age anymore, you'd think people would, grow up."

"Humans don't really like anything that's different," Paul summarised. "And react violently."

"Unfortunately," Megan agreed, "and I really wish we didn't."

* * *

 **Yikes, this one escalated. There's mention in game about androids being burned, so, makes sense to show it. As for the musical interlude, honestly I just had that scene in my head and it wouldn't leave me alone. I needed to get it out and I think it worked for mood whiplash.**

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **(Paul) leave Megan on the ground**

 **(Paul) Don't comment on the musicians. Make a joke.**

 **QTEs to avoid projectiles (Paul and Megan) Paul can take the hits, Megan would get injured.**

 **QTEs to hold Paul back (Megan) If failed Paul starts to charge for the other protesters but Oscar tackles hi** m


	25. Chapter 25

**4.15PM Monday 8** **th** **November 2038**

Once they got back in Paul immediately turned on the television, which showed the protests from earlier. The news anchor appeared perplexed by that androids had human supporters, although thankfully none of their faces were shown. They also appeared appropriately distressed when androids started being burnt.

"It's happening all over Detroit," Paul stated, feeling like he had a lump in his throat.

Megan didn't say anything. There was nothing to say that hadn't already been said.

Police sirens could be heard outside, and went mostly ignored. Until they didn't continue past.

Megan looked out the window curiously, and felt her blood run cold when saw that several cars had pulled up along the row of apartment blocks, and officers were getting out.

"The police are here," she said, and Paul shot up from his position on the couch, distracted from the tv. He looked over Megan's shoulder and watched several officers enter their building.

"What do they want?" he asked, a slight shake in his voice.

"No idea," Megan's was equally shaky. "But I doubt it's good."

Paul suddenly froze. "I've taken my LED out. They won't know I'm android."

"Do you still have it?" Megan asked urgently, and Paul nodded. "Chuck it in the trash. Where's your old uniform?"

"On the couch."

Megan grabbed it, and had no idea what to do with it. A sudden flash of inspiration hit her and she ran over to the laundry basket. She shoved it in about half way and covered it in other dirty clothes, especially underwear.

"Is that everything?" she asked.

"I think so," Paul shut the trash can and gave it a good shake, sifting the contents so that the LED would be harder to spot. "How's my make up look?"

Megan had a quick look. "Your eyeliner's running."

Paul rushed to the bathroom and Megan looked out of the window. The cars had stopped ejecting officers, but what was even more alarming was the large van that had pulled up behind them.

Paul emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, make up immaculate, and they waited. Paul began to obsessively tidy as they waited, which was clearly a way of coping for him. Megan sat and picked at a loose thread in her sweater.

Finally there was a knock at the door and Megan sprang up, nerves erupting in her stomach. She looked over at Paul, who gave a nervous nod, and she went to open the door.

"Good afternoon ma'am," greeted the officer. "We're conducting a search of the building for unusual android activity, given the events earlier today. May I ask you a few questions?"

"Y-yeah, sure," Megan hated how much her voice shook.

"Is everything alright?" the officer asked, already suspicious.

"I-I have social anxiety. I-I'm terribly sorry."

"Okay, I'll be as quick as I can, but I'll need to come inside." Megan nodded and stepped back to let him, kicking herself for how she was acting. She couldn't help it! She just needed not to say anything that could incriminate Paul, and given that was all she could think about, best not to say anything at all.

"Ah, hello sir," the officer appeared surprised by Paul's presence.

"Hello officer," in contrast to Megan, Paul's voice was calm and collected. "Sorry for not answering the door myself, I was in the bathroom and Megan hates leaving people waiting at the door."

"Don't worry, I get it," the officer waved off. "Police are scary to anyone. So, have you guys seen any androids acting, oddly, lately?"

"Not that I can recall," Paul responded evenly. "Would you like something to drink officer? Since you must have climbed all of those stairs."

"Yes please. Do you have coffee?"

"Of course," Paul set about sorting that while Megan sat at her desk chair.

"Looks pretty well worn," the officer noted. "Sit here a lot?"

"I'm a student. I watch lectures online," Megan explained, forcing herself to at least look at the officer's face.

"Do both of you live here?" the officer continued, and Paul answered this time.

"Just Megan, but I'm around a lot."

"Ah, so, boyfriend?"

"No," Paul denied easily, "just good friends," the coffee was finished and he passed to the officer.

"I see," the officer continued to look around the apartment, peeking into Megan's bedroom, much to her annoyance. "Have you guys noticed strangers coming into the building at odd times?"

"It's not like we know everyone in the building," Paul shrugged, "But, I don't think so."

The officer looked at Megan, who shook her head as well. "Haven't seen anyone."

The officer meandered around until they reached the bathroom.

"Your door is broken," they commented, and Megan panicked, she'd forgotten about that!

"Yes, we had a fight a while ago and I ended up breaking the latch," Paul admitted with the right amount of sheepishness. "We keep forgetting to get it fixed."

The officer nodded again and continued walking before handing the half empty mug back to the Paul.

"I think that's everything. You folks have a nice day now."

"You too," Paul returned, and the officer smiled before leaving.

The door slammed shut and Megan let out a long sigh of relief. Before she could relax though, they heard a commotion from the hallway.

"Leave her alone! Where are you taking her?"

Paul was the first to move, recognising the voice belonging to the younger Mrs Beckwith. Before Megan could stop him he opened the door to see her new android, a female AP700, being led away by police.

"Ma'am, please remain calm," and officer was trying to hold her back, but she wasn't having any of it.

"We need her!" she declared. "I know you're a young whippersnapper, but when you get old like me it's hard to do simple things anymore. Why do you think we have an android?!"

The officer, young and inexperienced, looked at their superior, who had stopped by the stairwell with the android.

"Ma'am, it appears to have signs of deviancy," he started, to which Mrs Beckwith snorted.

"Bullshit! She's AI isn't she? She learnt how to handle me and my wife, that's all! That's not deviancy, that's pretty basic programming in this day and age!"

The superior officer cast a look upwards that clearly said 'I'm too done for this' and sighed.

"Very well, ma'am, you can keep it for now. However I must warn you, if things escalate with these deviant androids there could very well be a full product recall. If that happens you _will_ have to hand over your android."

Mrs Beckwith scoffed. "We'll see about that. Anita dear, let's go."

Anita walked back over to Mrs Beckwith and the officers disappeared downstairs, leaving everyone on the floor to breathe a sigh of relief. Mrs Beckwith glanced over and noticed Paul for the first time.

"Paul! What happened to your hair?"

It took a second to remember that she didn't know he was a deviant. "Megan decided to change it."

"Hmm," Mrs Beckwith appraised him from a distance. "It suits you."

"Thank you."

Mrs Beckwith offered him a smile. "Now, I'd love to stay and chat, but I'd better get back to my wife. I'm sure you remember how things are. Say hi to Megan for me."

"Of course," Paul nodded with a careful smile as Mrs Beckwith walked down the hall to her apartment opposite. He closed the door and relaxed, only to be faced with a concerned Megan.

"What the hell was that?" she hissed, just in case officers would hear her. "She might have outed you in front of the police!"

"Sorry," Paul was sheepish, and she had a point. He didn't know what he had been thinking. "I, just, wanted to see if she was okay."

"I could hear her from here. Her lungs are certainly healthy."

Paul decided not to press the matter, and went to the kitchen instead to wash up the mug.

"This isn't the end, is it?" Megan nervously, and Paul paused, hand hovering over the faucet.

"I don't know," he admitted. "We just need to keep our wits about us, and prepare for another protest tomorrow."

Megan nodded silently, and turned back to her computer.

* * *

 **A couple of things to clear up. First, yes, this is earlier than when Kara's group was visited by the police officer. Kara was out in the middle of nowhere from what I could tell, therefore it would take longer for the police to get there, instead of, say, near the centre of Detroit. That's also why the officer was less 'we've had reports of android in the area' and more 'have you seen androids acting oddly'. Of course they've seen androids; they're in the middle of Detroit!**

 **This is also now the second time where there's a chance to get a different ending. The last time being Chapter 7 where if your relationship was bad enough Paul wouldn't have gone deviant and Megan would have died.**

 **The details of this other ending will be after the Other Options flowchart.**

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **(Paul) Fail to properly hide LED (he could really just leave it in his pocket, but the risk of it falling out and being discovered are higher)***

 **(Megan) Fail to properly hide uniform***

 **(Megan) Tell Paul he looks fine***

 **(Megan) Nod to respond to the officer about the chair. Say Nothing (raises suspicion level slightly)**

 **(Paul) Claim to be Megan's boyfriend**

 **(Megan) Comment on the officer looking in her room (raises suspicion slightly)**

 **(Paul) Ignore the commotion outside**

 **(Paul) Intervene**

 **(Paul) Tell Mrs Beckwith that he's a deviant**

 **All options with an * would greatly increase suspicion and most likely get Paul arrested, held for a while, then taken to a Recycling Facility. This kicks off an alternate ending where Android Allies stage a rescue and take over of one of the Recycling Facilities.**

 **Depending on which option you choose when Paul is arrested. You can also have the ending where Paul dies and Megan is maybe arrested (I haven't decid** ed), there's also multiple endings with these two scenarios. I'm making a full list of possible endings that I'll post once this project is complete.


	26. Chapter 26

**2.30AM Tuesday 9** **th** **November 2038**

Paul hadn't moved from the living area, nor had he turned off the tv all night. He watched it near religiously, waiting for any more signs of this Markus or change in the media. So far, no change either way.

Megan's door creaked open and she stumbled out in her pyjamas. Her hair was a bed tousled mess and her pyjamas were rumpled, yet it appeared she hadn't actually slept.

"Are you okay?" Paul asked, and Megan shrugged.

"Can't sleep," she said, retrieving her coat. "All I can see is that burning android, or you being taken away by police and..." Megan couldn't continue, but she didn't need to.

"There's been reports of more people burning androids all day," Paul said miserably. "Protests across Detroit. No idea if for or against androids, but..." Paul shrugged helplessly. "What are you doing?"

"Going to the roof," Megan responded, putting her coat on.

"It is literally freezing outside," Paul warned.

"I'll be fine. I just need to think," Megan turned to go back to her bedroom, and Paul resisted the urge to make her take the stairs.

"Are you sure you'll be alright? The metal is slippery in the snow."

"I won't go on the railing," Megan promised. "My balance is good, but you're right. It's dangerous this time of year."

With that she left the room and Paul settled back into the couch. He was watching one of those 24 hour news channels, which didn't really have anything interesting.

He slipped into a daze, thinking about what that police officer said. That if things escalate CyberLife will have a product recall. He shuddered. He didn't remember CyberLife, he wasn't online until he reached the stores. If there was a massive product recall, best case scenario was mass reprogramming, worst case, mass destruction. Neither of these scenarios Paul wanted.

Megan would try and protect him, he didn't doubt that, but there was only so much she could do. There were other ways to tell if someone was an android.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by the news channel suddenly erupting. Just like before he began to flick through channels to see if he could get a different perspective. This time though he had to stand up and physically change the channel, so stood right in front of the tv.

"We interrupt this broadcast with breaking news."

"This just in: at exactly 2AM several CyberLife stores in Detroit were raided."

"Different locations were hit in what seems to be a co-ordinated terrorist attack and we're getting more information as it comes in."

"Most shop windows were covered in graffiti demanding rights for androids and other obscure slogans."

"Police report that pro-android graffiti was found in the neighbourhoods of CyberLife's stores and they're still investigating."

"We're getting reports that two policemen were found in a state of shock near one of the CyberLife stores,"

"According to our sources, they confirm that the attackers were a group of androids,"

"This is an alarming situation. Could our machines now be turning against us?"

"Have androids become a threat to our security?"

"Is this the beginning of a terrorist campaign, conducted right here in the United States?

Paul turned off the tv in disgust. Terrorist campaign? Seriously? They broke some shop windows and left graffiti and left two police officers alive. That wasn't a terrorist campaign. People die in terrorist campaigns!

He wanted to share this Megan, but he had noticed that the last few times he'd lost his temper, Megan had appeared afraid. It made something in his chest ache. He didn't want Megan to be afraid of him, it's just, this whole thing just made him so angry! More angry than he'd ever been!

He began to pace. This wasn't fair! There were millions of androids, and when a few stand up for themselves every single android is branded as violent and dangerous. Admittedly, he knew that this had happened before throughout human history, since humans never seem to learn. That didn't make it any better though.

He paced around the darkened apartment, trying to calm himself down before talking to Megan. Once he felt like he was calm enough, he grabbed a pair of keys and went up the stairs to the roof.

Megan was still up there, sitting on her coat and wrapped in her duvet against the cold. Paul silently went over and sat down next to her.

"Needed to think too?" Megan asked, and Paul shrugged.

"Kind of," he followed Megan's gaze to the horizon. "News just in. There were a bunch of break ins at the CyberLife stores in Detroit. A lot of graffiti in Capitol Park and a couple of scared cops. News declaring at as a 'terrorist attack'," Paul used inverted commas there and Megan shook her head.

"Fucking idiots. No one's hurt or dead. Only weapons that sound like they might have been used is whatever they used to break in. That's not a terrorist attack, that's civil unrest."

"Thank you," Paul breathed, glad that Megan saw that as well.

"Sounds like Capitol Park is a good place to protest tomorrow," Megan added. "Get there nice and early, establish ourselves."

Paul nodded. "Agreed," he remembered the potential recall, but decided not to mention it. Megan clearly had enough problems sleeping. He didn't need to add to it. "I'll let the others know."

He sent a message out, and to his surprise, someone responded quickly.

Rainbow3: Do you sleep?

Beep Boop: Sometimes. What about you?

Rainbow3: I'm catching up on an essay. What's your excuse?

Beep Boop: Nervousness Incarnate and I can't sleep. Not after that android. Did the police come to yours yesterday?

Rainbow3: Yeah, seems like they're doing the rounds. Might get worse after what you mentioned.

Beep Boop: Yes, it might. Up for it?

Rainbow3: Sure

Poison Oak: Good, now can you two go to sleep!?

Rainbow3: Okay okay

Maggie and Ivy went offline, and Paul closed the app, letting the translucent window disappear.

"Most people should be there tomorrow," Paul reported back, and Megan nodded.

"Okay, better brace myself then," she declared.

"And actually sleeping would help," Paul intoned.

"I'll try, but no promises," the smirk was clear in Megan's voice as she stood up, duvet around her like a cloak.

"Also, we're taking the stairs," Paul decided, "that's one hell of risk if you go down the fire escape like that."

"Okay dad," Megan yawned, and Paul stopped and looked at her oddly.

"...dad?"

"I was joking. You're more like a protective brother to be honest," Megan yawned again. "Let's go to bed."

"Agreed."

* * *

 **9AM Tuesday 9** **th** **November 2038**

Nearly everyone was yawning as they set up in Capitol Park. The news last night and the burning android had unsettled them, but they were still going. Julia and Oscar couldn't make it that, for work and football practice respectively. However that was mitigated by the number of people that Alex and Allison had recruited.

There was about thirty of them now, all with cardboard and electronic signs. Since the plan was to be there all day, people had brought drinks, food, chairs, blankets, heat packs, batteries and even spare winter clothing.

The mood was muted, but hopeful as they saw the graffiti from last night was still there.

Alex stood at the front, facing the crowd.

"Loving the turnout today! Remember, we're here all day, and we're all friends. Don't be afraid to ask for water if you need it. We'll take rotated breaks for lunch from midday until two, and we'll stay until it gets dark. If you need to leave early, that's fine. Like I said, we're all friends here!" Alex picked up their banner with Allison, which had been redecorated with triangles in a variety of colours. "Let's get started!"

The entire crowd began to chant. It got off to a rough start due to embarrassment and not being co-ordinated. Although they quickly got together and were chanting loudly and in time with both Alex and Nathan's rhythm, since he had brought the keyboard again.

Paul had Megan on his shoulders again, and he couldn't help but look around. He got the feeling that there was at least one more android in the group. After a scan around he found them. A WR600 he guessed, as they weren't in uniform and were wearing a hat. However, given how stiffly he was standing and how robotically he was chanting, it was clear he wasn't deviant.

Paul managed to catch their eye, and smile at them, hoping to make them think. The WR600 didn't change expression, but did stare at him for a few seconds before facing forward again. It was a start.

More people arrived as the hours wore on, and Megan took breaks from sitting on Paul's shoulders. It got surprisingly uncomfortable after a while.

Around half one someone offered him a sandwich.

"No thanks, I'm good," he assured.

"Are you sure? You've been doing this all day, don't you want a break?"

"I'll have a break," Paul conceded, even if he didn't need one. "But Megan's been giving me snacks all morning. I'm not hungry."

"Alright," they shrugged. "I'll see if anyone else wants it."

Paul sat down on one of the blankets and folded his legs to people watch. Random people seemed to be joining now, swelling the ranks to at least forty, and so far, no negative push back. Even the press they had attracted seemed more curious than judgemental as they interviewed people. Fate appeared to have smiled upon them. Although there were still several hours to go, anything could happen.

* * *

More protesting! Seems to be going a lot better than last time though. Maybe it'll stay that way... People who know the game timeline know how that will go down.

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) Suggest Megan takes the stairs. Insist.

(Paul) Take the fire escape

(Megan) Sarcastic response.

(Megan) Say nothing (Paul would suggest Capital Park protest)


	27. Chapter 27

**2PM Tuesday 9** **th** **November 2038**

Lucas was on his phone around 2PM, and his shout sudden rang out over the crowd.

"Everyone! Check the news! Markus led a protest!"

The chants fell as everyone checked their phones for the news, and each watched the same clip of Markus and a group of androids marching down the street, only to be greeted by the police. Paul felt something tighten in his gut as the police opened fire, gunning down multiple androids, including Markus.

The leader of the deviants got dragged away to safety and the feed cut, going to news anchors discussing the whole situation.

The chants were dead at this point, everyone discussing what had happened, and whether the police were going to come here too.

As if on cue, sirens could be heard, and Megan met Paul's eyes. Wide and panicked.

He tried to smile, but that faded as the police rolled up, all in black riot gear, but thankfully not wielding guns.

The entire crowd went silent, as did the journalists. Everyone was wondering how similar this was going to be to what happened to Markus's protest.

"This is an illegal gathering," one of the officers declared through a megaphone, and Paul had irrational urge to laugh. He could imagine that they had a script to follow, and the image of them learning the script just seemed oddly funny to him.

Alex, uncowed, stepped forward.

"What's illegal about it?" she asked, loudly enough for everyone to hear. "We're protesting peacefully, we're not causing property damage, we're not physically harming anyone. How is this illegal?"

"This gathering is illegal," the police officer insisted. "Please disperse."

"You didn't answer the question!" Alex called back. "Give us a reasonable answer, and we'll move!"

"This is an illegal gathering," the police officer reiterated, and Alex sighed, rolling their eyes. "Disperse, or we will have to use drastic measures."

"Oh, so you're going open fire on us as well?" Alex asked. "Unarmed civilians, not doing any harm? I'm sure that'll look favourable."

"This is your last warning!" the officer shouted. "Disperse!"

The crowd shifted uneasily. A few members did break and leave, but most of them followed Alex's example and stayed.

Paul could feel Megan standing next to him as fear rolled off of her. He held his hand out to hold hers, and she gripped it in an iron grasp.

The officer didn't say anything, opting to duck down behind the wall of riot shields. Something was thrown over them. A small cylinder which Paul quickly scanned as it flew through the air.

"TEAR GAS!" he roared just before the canister hit the ground at the front of the crowd.

It hissed out the irritant at an alarming rate, and resolve or no resolve, no one was hanging around to get caught in it.

Paul quickly pulled Megan into him so that her face was buried in his shirt. They were right at the front, and even with a warning they got the worst of it.

People screamed and choked and scattered, everything dissolving into chaos. Paul just picked up Megan and ran. The smoke did have some effect on him, liquid streaming down his face to protect the more sensitive replica eyeballs, but he wasn't nearly as badly affected as any of the humans caught in it.

He looked around for stragglers, and saw to his horror that Alex and Allison were still standing. They looked like hell, with eyes swollen, tears streaming down their faces and coughing up a storm, but they were still there.

"For fucks sake you two!" Paul bellowed at them. "Don't be martyrs! Get out of here!"

To his surprise, it was Allison who seemed the most reluctant to leave, but Alex grabbed her by the jacket and pulled her away.

The police, realising they were about to lose everyone, suddenly scattered and charge for protesters, trying to make some arrests. They almost got Nathan, who was encumbered by his keyboard. He however whacked them over the head with it, and with an emotional apology to his beloved keyboard (Paul was pretty sure it wasn't just the gas making him cry) he continued to run.

Megan gripped his torso like a koala and he held onto her just as tight, with reminders to not look up whatever she did.

He didn't stop moving until they were safely on a bus and finally Megan could release her limpet tight grip on Paul. They sat down in the nearest seats and Paul took his coat off, airing it to try and get rid of any residual tear gas.

Once done he looked at Megan and instantly panicked when he saw that her face was red with tears.

"Oh shit, the gas didn't get you did it?"

Megan shook her head, wiping her eyes. "No, no. I just," she sniffed. "I'm so stupid."

Calming down, Paul put the pieces together. "You freaked out and started crying?"

Megan nodded. "Like I said, stupid. Crying like a little kid."

"You were in a dangerous situation and you were scared. It's a normal human reaction."

"It's embarrassing."

"Given what happened, I don't think it is," Paul disagreed. "Besides, everyone will think it was because of the gas anyway."

Megan wiped her eyes, and suddenly giggled.

"What?" Paul asked.

"I think you've sworn more in the past two days than in the entire time I've known you," she continued to laugh.

"I suppose I have," Paul thought. "It's not that funny though, is it?"

"No, it's stress," Megan was trying to stifle the giggles. "I'll be fine in a minute."

As Megan recovered Paul went to the group chat, and sent a message.

Beep Boop: Is everyone okay?

AAA Battery: Having trouble, otherwise okay

That1BikerChick: Same here

Tudor: I'm not surprised, you two got the brunt of it

Rainbow3: You should go to hospital

AAA Battery: Don't want to make it obvious for police. I'll just go home and feel sorry for myself for a few hours.

Captain Hardass: WTH HAPPENED?!

Ringo: Tear gas. Most of us got out okay. AAA Battery and That1BikerChick got it the worst though.

Captain Hardass: Never mind a few hours. You two will be out for the rest of the day. As for everyone else, take a shower when you get home, put on fresh clothes, open windows and rinse your eyes out. You'll feel better.

Coubertin: How do you know that?

Captain Hardass: My uncle is a police captain. I've picked up things

AAA Battery: Good idea though. Go home, recuperate. Try again tomorrow

That1BikerChick: You want to try AGAIN after that?!

AAA Battery: Yeah. So one protest got scattered, big deal. The press caught that, no way they'll try that again

That1BikerChick: You can't promise that!

AAA Battery: No I can't, but you saw how big a crowd we pulled today. If we go back after adversity we'll encourage more people.

That1BikerChick: ...I hate that you might be right on that

AAA Battery: Deal with it

Tudor: Okay you two, chill

Poison Oak: If we're going to do that, then we need to send out a warning to people with asthma, anxiety

Captain Hardass: Shit

AAA Battery: Nervousness Incarnate ARE YOU OKAY?

Beep Boop: She's fine. Her face was against my shirt the entire time. The gas barely hit her

AAA Battery: Oh thank God!

Poison Oak: Give it up for Beep Boop the badass!

Ringo: How are you holding up?

Beep Boop: Fine. I'll follow Captain Hardass's advice when I get home. How's your keyboard Ringo?

Ringo: A little dinged, but okay. She's made of sturdy stuff

AAA Battery: Good. We'll talk when we've calmed down a bit

That1BikerChick: Agreed

Paul looked away from the chat to see that Megan had calmed down and was looking at her phone.

"Deal with it when we get home," she said, and Paul nodded wordlessly, saying nothing and she leaned her head on his shoulder.

* * *

Cops got called on one protest, they'll get called on the other. I think. Since most of the attendees are human, they wouldn't open fire, hello human/android bias!

As I understand it though, tear gas sucks. It's supposed to be the peaceful option, but from what I've read it's awful to go through it. Sources can't seem to decide how long it takes to recover, so I'm guessing it depends on length and intensity of exposure.

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) Suggest that Alex stand down

(Paul) Run over to Allison and Alex. Talk down diplomatically

QTEs- scan the tear gas canister, if failed the effect will be worse.

Dodge fleeing protesters, if failed Megan will be effected by the gas


	28. Chapter 28

**3PM Tuesday 9** **th** **November 2038**

They only just had time for Megan to shower and partially dry and Paul to change clothes before things started getting bad.

The news had been blaring since they got in, and besides the protests that day, a large chunk of what was playing was repeated messages for all androids to be handed over to the police and a curfew was being put in place for all of Detroit.

Megan stared at the screen, swallowing hard as she paused in towel drying her hair. This was bad. This was very, very bad.

Megan looked over at Paul, who was also watching, rapt. They had two options. Stay here safely, until the mentioned temperature checks were brought in, in which case they were screwed. Or they could try to leave, but where would they go?

They could go to Megan's parent's home, except androids were in use across the country, so it might not be long until checks started happening there too. Canada was an option, she had cousins in Canada, but then what? They couldn't stay in Canada forever!

The answer came in the form of a message from Alex.

AAA Battery: Everyone get to mine ASAP

Paul and Megan saw it at the same time and looked at each other. Alex lived on the other side of the city, and if there was a curfew in place, public transport might not be running.

"We can make it," Paul stated. "I don't need to sleep; I can carry you."

"It'll take hours!" Megan protested, "I don't see this curfew getting any better."

"Then we leave before it gets worse."

"Here is safe!"

"Here we're sitting ducks!"

"The police don't know that you're an android!"

"They didn't do full checks!" Paul was starting to pace. "What if this escalates to raids? What if the door gets knocked down and I'm scanned with a temperature sensor before either of us can do anything? What then? Because if that happens, I'm shut down and you're arrested!"

"That could happen if we leave!"

"If we leave, we can have more control over it," Paul stopped pacing to look at her. "It's still daylight."

"It'll be dark by the time we get to Alex's."

"We'll be fine. People are still leaving work places. We can caught in the rush. If we don't find anyone to get us to Alex's, fine. We'll cope."

Megan swallowed. "I really don't like this."

"It's two evils," Paul agreed. "We've just got to decide which one is more likely to work."

"We don't have enough information," Megan twisted her hands together. "We don't know what they're going to do."

"And we won't know until it's too late," Paul looked at her pleadingly. "Let's go. Please."

"Okay, let me get a bag," Megan declared, giving her hair one last towel dry before dropping the towel in the laundry basket.

"I'll warn the Beckwith's," Paul decided, grabbing keys from the bowl and putting on his baseball cap.

"Be safe."

"I will," Paul stepped out of the door, barely letting it close behind him before striding to the other side of the hall and knocking on the Beckwith's door.

The android opened the door, making Paul stiffen. He'd never talked to her, never wanted to. She was his replacement, seeing her was painful.

He had to put that aside.

"Are Mrs and Mrs Beckwith home?" he asked Anita. "It's urgent."

"Of course. One moment," Anita stepped back into the house, and brought out the young Mrs Beckwith, who Paul remembered being called Danielle.

"Paul? What is it? Why are you dressed like that?"

"Never mind that!" Paul waved off, shocking Mrs Beckwith into silence. "Have you been watching the news?" he knew the answer was likely to be 'no', they rarely did watch the news.

"No, no we have not," Mrs Beckwith seemed to have recovered her wits. "What on earth has gotten into you?"

"Doesn't matter. Look, police are organising raids in residential areas, rounding up androids. If you want to protect Anita you need to get out of Detroit. Get her out of the uniform, hide or remove her LED and she might just be safe."

Mrs Beckwith blinked in surprise, taking this in. "Very well. We shall do just that. Stay safe Paul," she closed the door and Paul turned to see Megan standing next to him. She had a smallish backpack over her shoulder and was holding out his hoodie and raincoat.

"Make it a little less obvious that you don't feel the cold," she noted, and Paul put them on, noting that she was also wearing a hoodie and a coat.

"Let's go," he said, and Megan nodded, face grim and tight with nervous determination.

* * *

 **3.20PM Tuesday 9** **th** **November 2038**

Once outside they realised that one detail wasn't quite correct.

"People are getting on the bus," Megan noted.

"Yeah, they're just being guarded," Paul added, clocking the black body armour the guards were wearing.

"And checking ID's," Megan sighed. "Never mind."

"Let's go before they spot us," Paul added, and the two kept walking. They went in the opposite direction to the bus stop. Even with people still using public transport, it was almost eerily quiet.

Automated taxis zoomed by, but all the taxi ranks were empty. They still had to walk.

"Hey! You two!"

Megan and Paul froze at the shout. Megan shoved her hands in her pockets as they turned, trying to hide her fists clenched in fear.

A black armoured soldier walked over at a brisk pace. "There's a curfew being put in place right now. Go to your homes."

"That's where we are going," Paul assured.

"Very well, ID's please."

Megan's heart rate shot through the roof, but Paul managed to remain calm.

"Aw damn it, I left it at home. I mean, I wasn't expecting a curfew, you know?"

"What about you?" he asked Megan, and she fished out her student ID and handed it to him. He inspected it and handed it back over. "Looks alright here ma'am. Sir, I'm just going to have to ask you to hold still a moment."

He pulled out a small handheld laser device, which they both recognised as a temperature sensor that was being shown on the news. He made to scan it at them, but paused when the red light didn't come on.

"What the...?" he pulled it back and checked it over. "I swore I... Damn batteries died almost instantly!" he put the temperature gun away. "Apologies ma'am, sir. You look alright, get home safe."

"Thank you sir," Paul smiled as he began to walk away, and Megan managed to small smile before following him.

Once out of earshot Megan muttered.

"That was too close."

"Agreed."

* * *

They had to pass through the busier parts of Detroit to get to Alex's, so dived for the nearest parked car when they saw another guard. Megan put her hand over her mouth to hide the water vapour as they walked past, heart hammering in her chest. They walked past, scanned the area, and turned around.

Paul grabbed her hand and she followed him to the next car. A squad came running past, but missed them entirely. Instead they descended on an unlucky android.

Both Megan and Paul tensed as the android begged with the squad, trying to get them to believe that they were human. A single gunshot sounded and the android went silent.

Paul gripped Megan's hand and she squeezed it. It wasn't over yet for them.

They took it one car at a time, sprinting across gaps when they had to. It took the best part of two hours to get out of the city centre, and by that point Megan was almost convinced that she'd had multiple heart attacks.

The number of military personal decreased once they left the centre, but on the flip side, there were fewer places to hide, and fewer androids to distract them.

"Stop right there!" one cried as they tried to duck between street lights, and a hand grabbed Megan's shoulder to pull her away from Paul.

"What are you doing? There's a curfew," even though they couldn't see his face, they had a feeling he was narrowing his eyes, especially at Paul. The fact that Paul had changed his hair suddenly gave them the benefit of the doubt.

"Sorry, we're not familiar with Detroit," Paul was the King of Excuses tonight. "We're trying to get back to our host family, but we've been lost for hours!"

"Hours, huh?" the soldier didn't seem to believe them. "Can I see your ID's please?"

Paul groaned. "I left it at the host family's house. I'm sorry, I'm forgetful."

"Forget his head if it wasn't screwed on," Megan managed to chime in coherently, despite her heart trying to make a new home outside of her rib cage.

The solider seemed to run out of patience and whipped out the temperature gun. In the low light it could be mistaken for an actual gun, which gave Megan an idea.

"I wanna go home!" she suddenly cried, and began to full on sob. Even Paul was taken aback as tears and snot began to fall down her face at a rapid pace.

The soldier paused in lifting the temperature sensor and looked around for backup, clearly flustered. Luckily for Megan and Paul, there was no such backup.

"O-okay, please stop crying," the soldier tried to comfort. "It's not a real gun-"

On the word 'gun' Megan turned the crying up to 11 and Paul shot the soldier a look with a mix of 'look what you did' and 'help me'.

"Okay okay," the solider put the temperature scanner away. "See, it's gone. You two head back now. I'd escort you but I have to keep an eye for deviants. If you see anything dangerous, get as far as you can away from it. Understand?"

Megan nodded. "Ye-yes," she half sobbed, hiccupping and wiping her eyes.

"Atta girl. Stay safe you two," the soldier walked off in one direction and Megan and Paul went in the other.

"What was that?" Paul hissed once out of earshot.

"Never underestimate the power of the ugly cry," Megan informed him sagely, wiping snot off of her face with her sleeve. "It works especially well if you're already terrified, you're female, and you look younger than you are."

"I will have to remember that."

"It won't work on you," Megan added. "You're too tall and obviously older. You might be able to pretend to have autism, but that's touchy territory so I wouldn't recommend it unless you really had to."

The two of them stuck to the shadows and walked through the park to avoid soldiers. They even ended up diving for someone's front yard as one of them started to turn their flashlight unexpectedly in their direction.

Finally, nearly five hours after they'd left, they made it to Alex's.

* * *

 **So, shit hit the fan quick. This is a part of the story were I have to make some assumptions, as we don't see this happening until Kara and co make their way to Jericho, but Rose claims it's been happening for hours.**

 **Other Options Flowchart**

 **(Megan) Stay in the apartment (leads to different scene where they have to leave or be arrested)**

 **(Paul) Don't warn the Beckwiths.**

 **(Paul) Pretend not to be deviant.**

 **(Paul) Tell them to stay put. Tell them to hide**

 **(Paul) Second guard. Run. Knock away sensor. Attack. (Megan (same scenario)) Talk down. Beg. Distract. If failed, Paul would be shot and Megan possibly arrested.**

 **QTEs. Going between cars, if failed chances of being spotted is higher-may lead to Paul dead ending and maybe Megan arrested.**


	29. Chapter 29

**8PM Tuesday 9** **th** **November 2038**

Paul knocked on the door, Megan trailing behind him. She just caught up as Alex opened the door. The Junior still looked awful. Their eyes were still red and puffy and they still seemed to have a rattle in their chest.

"Quick, get in," they ushered them inside and closed the door behind them. "Oh thank God! I was so worried about you two!"

"Did everyone else make it?" Paul asked, and Alex nodded.

"Yeah, everyone's here. We have the whole house to ourselves, but we're mostly crashing in the basement right now."

They followed Alex down to the basement, where everyone was indeed crashing.

Normal and blow up mattresses were dotted around the large space with scattered sleeping bags, blankets, pillows and hot water bottles. In the middle of it all was a large table and a flip chart with a bunch of ideas written on, but most of them had been crossed out. At the far end a tv flickered, showing the news, which was a repeat of what had been playing all afternoon.

The original ten of Android Allies were scattered around. They were mostly quiet, subdued, but they lit up when Alex came downstairs with Megan and Paul.

"Oh thank goodness," Oscar boomed.

"What took you two so long?" Allison asked half seriously.

"We had to walk from the other side of town," Paul explained as Megan found a quiet corner to sit in.

"Why didn't you get the bus?" Ivy asked. "It was still running when Alex sent out the message."

"They were checking IDs, and I don't have one," Paul felt oddly weary. Not physically tired, just, like he'd had enough for one day.

"Not even a student card?" Maggie asked. "How come?"

"I'm not a student," Paul defended, and Alex jumped into the conversation.

"Okay, these two are pretty shattered right now, and probably starving, so how about you guys leave them be while I grab something from the kitchen, alright?"

They waited until everyone nodded in agreement before making their way back towards the stairs.

"I know you guys might start pestering while I'm gone, so whoever starts nagging will be duct taped to the wall."

There was some laughter until everyone realised that Alex was serious, and they slowly quietened down. Alex did one last look over before disappearing upstairs.

Paul sat down on one of the mattresses and leaned back against the wall. They were here. They were safe. Hopefully, it would stay that way.

He looked over the rest of the group, who were talking amongst themselves. He was going to have to tell them. They'd notice him not eating or sleeping. He'd have to tell them that he was android.

Yesterday, they might have taken it quite well. Today, not so certain. What with the militarised recall of all androids. They might give him up for their own safety.

Paul shook the thought away. That still didn't seem likely. Alex knew and they still clearly held some sway over the group. If all else failed, they'd probably convince them all.

Speaking of which, Alex came back down with a bowl of stew and a glass of water. They bypassed Paul and gave them straight to Megan who instantly started gulping down the water, backpack by her feet.

"I've got a massive crock pot going upstairs," they said as Megan drank. "Eat as much as you like."

Alex left Megan and went over to Paul. "How are we going to do this?" they asked him quietly. "I know you don't need to eat, but can you?"

"Don't waste your food," Paul assured. "I'll tell them. They'll find out eventually anyway."

"You want to tell them now?"

"Yeah," Paul took a deep breath.

Alex nodded and Paul stood up as they clapped their hands, drawing the attention of the room.

"Paul has something he'd like to tell us," Alex started, and gestured to Paul for him to continue. "The floor is yours."

Paul scanned the faces watching him, mostly seeing simple curiosity, and a little suspicion, but nothing antagonistic. He straightened, and began to speak.

"I have been hiding something, from, all of you, since we first met. And now feels like a good time for me to tell you."

"Dude, if you're going to come out of the closet, fine," Lucas piped up. "But are you sure now's a good time?"

"I am not on the LGBTA+ spectrum," Paul shot down. "What I am, is an android."

Silence.

"Seriously?" Allison asked, and Paul nodded. He held up his hand and let the skin pull back, revealing the white casing underneath.

"Holy shit," Ivy breathed. "Deviant as well?"

"Take a wild guess," Paul answered dryly. "That's why I don't have ID, and why I won't be eating or sleeping, since I don't need to."

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Nathan asked. "We're literally an ally group for androids. It's not like we'd have ratted you out."

"I, I was still trying to figure out deviancy, and what it meant. Not to mention, I didn't know any of you. I didn't want to share it with people I didn't really know, at least, not until I'd figured it out myself."

"What model are you? If you don't mind me asking," Julia added in. "I feel like I should know, but I can't put my finger on it."

"I'm a PL600, just with a hair colour change and a bit of makeup."

Julia nodded, satisfied.

"Anymore questions?" Paul opened up, but everyone shrugged and shook their heads. "Okay, I'll just, sit over here then," he plopped back down and everyone got back to chatting with each other. It was almost like he'd never made that announcement.

"It seems like we were worried over nothing," noted Alex.

"Yeah," Paul agreed. "Everyone took it, rather well."

"Yep," Alex nodded before standing up. "I'm going to crash, and I imagine Megan will too in a bit. It's been a long day for everyone."

Paul nodded. "I'll keep an eye on the news."

"Thanks man," Alex smiled and gave a thumbs up. "Good night."

* * *

 **11PM Tuesday 9** **th** **November 2038**

Sleep did not come easy for Android Allies. Most struggled to get comfortable, and those who did were quickly the target of pillows when they started snoring.

Megan ended up curled up in the furthest corner away from anyone, but still took a while to fall asleep. She was still on edge from the last few days.

She could see Paul though, at the other end of the room. He was sat by the tv with the volume off, but the captions on. He barely moved as everyone fell asleep around him.

Nothing interesting happened until about 11PM when the picture changed so drastically that it shook Paul out of his stupor.

Reading the captions and watching the footage, Paul felt something drop in his gut.

Jericho, where it turned out a large chunk of the deviants, including Markus, had been hiding, had been raided.

Jericho was a ship it turned out; an old, rusted freighter. About an hour ago it had been raided by the FBI, and every deviant they could find had been shot.

Paul stood up, trying not to wake anyone up, and began to pace. No no no, it was all falling apart! How could they do this? Cut down androids who just want freedom. It wasn't right! It wasn't fair!

If Markus and his group were down, then the government had won. Android Allies would be arrested, he'd be discovered and shut down. It was all over!

He tapped his finger against his thigh in a steady rhythm, focusing only on that.

He was still here. There were multiple factions of Android Allies across the country. Nathan had drummed up some international support. Markus might be gone, and if that were the case, then he'd be a martyr.

Paul sat back down again, keeping one eye on the news feed, not that there was much else being added. They could still come back from this.

"You okay?" someone asked quietly. Paul looked over the sleeping bodies to see Julia staring at him. He shrugged.

"Yes. Big thing on the news."

"What happened?" Julia was up and moving to stand next to him. Paul found himself wringing his hands, a very human gesture.

"Markus's deviants were raided. FBI shot everyone they could."

There was a sharp intake of breath from Julia. "...Right. Okay. Are you sure you're okay? You were pacing."

Paul shook his head, feet moving to pace again. "I'm, I'm not okay. If Markus is dead-"

"If he's dead it's not over," Julia said sternly, echoing the android's earlier thoughts. "We're still here, aren't we? You're still here. And, it's not like it's just Detroit that has deviants."

Paul nodded, glad to hear someone agree. It managed to settle his whirring processor. "Thank you."

"Any time," Julia patted him on the shoulder, making him stiffen for a second. She withdrew her hand. "Sorry, was that not okay?"

"No, no it was fine. I was, surprised. That's all."

"Okay," Julia nodded and glanced back over at the tv. "You're still going to stay up?"

"I don't need to sleep. Might as well."

"Aren't you bored?"

Paul paused, unsure how to answer. "I, suppose?"

"Then, we can talk for a bit?" Julia offered, and Paul shook his head.

"You need sleep."

"I'm not sure I can," Julia admitted. "I'm, I'm worried about my uncle."

"Captain Fowler?"

Julia nodded. "He's not exactly young. I know it's mostly the military doing this now, but, it would make sense to draft in the local police."

"I'm sure your uncle is fine," Paul reassured. "If he's a Captain then he's an experienced police officer. He'll know how to handle himself."

"I know," Julia sighed. "Doesn't stop me worrying."

Paul nodded. He had learned that from Megan, worries and concerns weren't always logical, or swayed by logic.

"Hey, if you don't me asking," Julia started. "How did you become deviant?"

Paul stiffened, then leaned against the wall in a false show of ease. "It's, er, a little personal."

"Oh! Of course. I suppose something like that would be."

"Not to me," he clarified, nodding his head across the room to where Megan was sleeping. Julia followed his gaze, and her mouth formed into a small 'oh'.

"Did she try to..." Julia trailed off, but Paul had no idea where she leading to. "You know, attempt to meet her maker?"

"Oh! Not quite. Although she admitted that she might have gotten carried away if I hadn't intervened."

Julia nodded sagely. "I guess something like that would be alarming to come across."

"More like she was behaving strangely, and according to previous evidence I had a good right to be concerned," Paul shrugged like it wasn't a big deal, but it was. Even now he still worried that Megan might try something, especially with how stressful the situation was becoming.

Julia nodded in agreement before yawning.

"You should sleep," Paul advised, and Julia nodded.

"I know. Good night," Julia returned to her sleeping bag, and Paul watched the news unfold until images of the massacre at Jericho were seared into his mind.

* * *

They're all safe, and in one place. Jericho's also fallen, oh, and Paul reveals himself! The reaction would vary depending on how suspicious the group was. If it had been at it's highest someone would have interrupted and said 'you're an android right?' and bets would have been made on the model.

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) Forgot his ID. Lost his ID. Didn't want to risk public transport.

(Paul) Keep pretending to be human.

(Paul) Tell the group later.

(Paul) Brush off Julia. Lie, Play down.

(Paul) Insist Julia sleeps.

(Paul) Don't tell Julia how he became deviant


	30. Chapter 30

**8AM Wednesday 10** **th** **November 2038**

"So, is Markus dead?" Allison asked once everyone was up and awake. Despite protests from multiple people Alex had made breakfast. Both they and Allison looked a lot better than yesterday; their eyes less swollen and breathing a lot easier.

"No one knows," Paul stated. "There's been no report about his body, so it's looking hopeful. Meanwhile there's a dusk til dawn curfew. The right to assembly has been officially suspended and electronic communication is in the process of being controlled. We might get this morning's news on tablet, but other than that..." Paul trailed off with a shrug, and Nathan snorted.

"No way they're going to be able to completely cut of communication, let along electronic. That would take too much co-operation with companies whose business depends on the internet and mobile phones. Not to mention that doesn't cover older methods of communication. Radio, Morse code, smoke signals, carrier pigeon."

"I think we get the point Nathan," Allison cut in. "It would take a while to properly get everyone offline and unable to communicate, and at the speed this is all going it might all be over before they finish."

"The fastest revolution in history," Lucas scoffed. "That would be something."

"Whether Markus is alive or dead is beside the point," Alex chimed in, carrying a massive pot of scrambled eggs downstairs. "If he's alive there's still the original leader, as far as we know. If he's dead then someone else will step up and he'll become martyr. Which is theoretically more effective."

"We're discussing someone's death!" Ivy suddenly cried. "This isn't a history lecture! This is happening right now! People are dead, getting shot in the streets and rounded up like animals and we're here calmly discussing it like it's an essay on the Civil fucking War!"

"How do you suggest we talk about it?" replied Oscar hotly.

"We need to plan," Alex set the bowl down on the table, "and angrily shouting about it isn't going to help. The rest of the world is shouting, we need to be thinking."

"We don't _know_ if he's dead," Megan offered, finding the bowl of egg fascinating.

"No one does," sighed Paul.

"Either way, what now?" Maggie asked. "More protesting?"

"The right to assembly has been revoked," Paul reminded. "At best we'll all be arrested, at worst, more tear gas and gunfire."

A collective thought suddenly crossed every human's mind, and they all looked at Paul.

"...What?"

Allison growled in the back of her throat. "For fuck's sake we'll all thinking it!" she declared. "We're harbouring an android-!"

"Legality doesn't equal morality," Julia was quick to defend, and Allison backtracked.

"I was stating a fact. I don't want him to get caught as much as the rest of us, but the fact is-!"

"Paul's at the most risk," Megan said quietly, but everyone still heard.

"You don't need to worry about me," Paul stated, but everyone quickly disagreed.

"Yes we do," Alex declared. "You're disguised, yes, but temperature checks are being enforced. If we go and protest you can't come."

"They're not going to do temperature checks from a distance!"

"What if they open fire?! If a bullet hits you then it's game over!"

"We're fucked," Maggie was looking at the floor, and Megan had to admit that line of thought had crossed her mind.

"We are not fucked!" Alex shouted, before having to pause to cough. "We're not fucked," they repeated once the coughing fit had passed.

"You could be mission control," Nathan suddenly suggested, and everyone looked at him. "Paul. Paul could be mission control."

"How? If electronic communications are being restricted?" Oscar asked, and Nathan slumped, having not thought of that.

"Nice idea though," Paul comforted. "Although I'm not happy about being left behind," he took that to the rest of the group, although not everyone looked sheepish.

"We're thinking practically," Allison shrugged. "The fact is you are a wanted individual, and if we want you around, then you need to be protected."

"I can defend myself," Paul knew that wasn't a good thing to say then, and Lucas quickly confirmed that.

"Any attempt will be twisted as android aggression, even if it is self defence. I'm sorry, but I don't think you can win here."

Paul groaned and ran a hand over his face, another human gesture he noted. One that he'd done before "Is there anything I can do?"

"Nathan may be on to something with mission control," Alex thought. "Detroit will probably be the first place they take down communication, but as Nathan pointed out, that does exclude some things."

They looked over at Julia, who took a few seconds to get the hint. "Yes, I have some old radios at home. My uncle gave them to me to play with when I was nine. They're long dead."

"Batteries can be replaced," assured Alex. "Can you get them here?"

"Did you miss the part about a curfew?"

"Dusk to dawn. You'll need your ID if you're heading out."

Julia narrowed her eyes at Alex. "...I hate you."

"Love you too!" Alex beamed.

"You don't feel love!" Julia shot back, which made Megan tense up, but it was clearly an age old mock argument as Alex responded.

"Not in that way!"

Julia sighed and collected her coat and bag. "If I'm not back in an hour, assume I've been arrested." With that she went upstairs, and a few seconds later the sound of the front door shutting echoed down into the basement.

Silence reigned for a few seconds.

"So, are we actually going to stage protest?" Oscar asked, "Or did you send out Julia for nothing?"

Alex's good mood seemed to fade. "I, I don't know."

"You don't know," Allison repeated disbelievingly.

"It was pretty rough yesterday," Alex sighed. "I've had messages from people telling me they don't want to do it anymore if that happens."

"It's just us then, is it?" Maggie asked, and Alex nodded.

"In Detroit, yes."

"Fuck," Ivy swore, running her hand through her multicoloured hair. "Fuck."

"We get it," Lucas snapped. "If we protest we'll be arrested at best. If we don't then we're stuck down here, for what?!"

"We can't keep relying on Markus to lead by example," Alex decided, fists clenched. "If anything, we should be able to bolster what remains of his group. Show them that they aren't alone. That support exists, even if it's less than a dozen students," they looked out across the group, face hard. "When Julia gets back, I'm taking that sign and I'm protesting in Capitol Park."

"Are you nuts?" Nathan asked, "That's the first place they'll look!"

Alex shook their head. "Markus caused a bigger stir when he did his protest yesterday. That would be the more iconic place to protest, but that _would_ be the first place people would look."

"You've just recovered from the tear gas yesterday," Paul added, feeling something twist unpleasantly in his abdomen. "What if it's worse this time?"

"I don't care," Alex declared, although the slight wobble in their hands suggested otherwise. "I don't care!" They re-iterated, louder. "Innocent people are being condemned and we're just standing here!"

"The military won't listen to a single protest!" Nathan responded. "None of us want to see you in a cell."

"Then you're all cowards!" Alex yelled, startling everyone. "I thought you all cared! Paul has a legitimate excuse!" they gestured to Paul, who took a step back," but the rest of you? What's your excuse?!"

"We want to continue the fight," Oscar agreed, "but the atmosphere is too tense right now, things too unpredictable-"

"So you're going to stand by and let this happen?!"

"Alex that's enough!" Allison cried. "There's no point whipping yourself into a frenzy like this. Go protest if you want, but don't force anyone to come with you!"

Alex glared at the blonde woman, before snorting and turning on their heel, disappearing upstairs.

Ivy blinked. "I had no idea they could be so dramatic," she said deadpan.

Paul looked over at Megan, who was staring at the stairwell that Alex had stormed up. As the group fell into uneasy chatter he walked over.

"What are you thinking?"

She stiffened, then forcibly squared her shoulders. "I'm joining Alex."

"You're going to protest?" Paul asked, alarm rising. "You can't!"

"Why not?" Megan challenged. "You won't let me?"

"It's dangerous and you know it!"

"I know, but...it's right."

"What's your gut telling you? Your anxiety?" Paul insisted.

The look on Megan's voice informed that that had been a low blow.

"My anxiety is telling me to keep my head down and go away. But guess what? That's what it always says, and I'm done listening."

Megan's face was thunderous, and Paul felt the urge to swallow nervously.

"Think about it," he pacified, "until Julia gets back."

"Fine."

* * *

A lot of discussion this time, and there will be more next time. Also, multiple F bombs. Not much else to say really.

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) Agree that he's at risk. Aggressively disagree.

(Megan) Agree with Maggie.

(Paul) Completely agree with Nathan. Disregard Nathan.

(Paul) I can run. I'm good at bluffing. I'm disguised

(Megan) Don't say you're going to go with Alex. Don't agree to go with Alex.

(Paul) Say to go with her. Don't let her.


	31. Chapter 31

**08.45AM Wednesday 10** **th** **November 2038**

Julia thankfully returned, and Alex followed her downstairs. Once she reached the table she tipped her backpack upside down and out fell six old fashioned hand held radios.

"Like I said, they have no batteries... Alex what are you doing?" Julia asked with the weariness of someone who was used to Alex doing weird stuff. The individual in question had picked up one of the radios and was looking at it from all angles.

"Looking for screws."

"These things were supposed to recharge in a dock. I don't think you can replace the batteries."

"Of course you can!" Alex snorted. "Hey Paul, can you get a look as well? You might be able to get a better idea of the screwdriver we need."

Paul huffed, but went over to check anyway. He appeared to stare at the back of one of the radios for a second before he announced his findings and saying, "but Julia may have a point..." he trailed off as Alex charged upstairs.

"Don't bother," Lucas sighed, black hair rippling as he shook his head. "When they get an idea in their head it'll take the combined forces of heaven and hell to stop them. And they're atheist."

Paul nodded wearily and looked over at Megan, who was also examining the radios.

"I guess you haven't changed your mind?" he asked her quietly. Megan shook her head in response, putting down the radio with trembling hands. "You're shaking."

"Thanks Captain Obvious," her sarcasm did little to hide her nerves.

"If you're that scared then-" Paul was interrupted by Megan stubbornly shaking her head.

"I'm doing this," she said as Alex came charging down the stairs with a screwdriver. "You can't change my mind."

Paul glanced at Alex attacking the radios with their screwdriver and sighed. "I really wish you'd reconsider."

Megan didn't respond, before starting in surprise as Alex crowed in triumph.

"We can replace the batteries!" they charged upstairs again, presumably to tear the place apart to find replacements or a charging dock for them. Paul shot a pained look at Megan, who quickly looked away.

Alex came back down with a massive box filled with miscellaneous batteries and chargers and dumped it on the floor before ripping off the lid. After a pause Megan went to help them rifle through.

"What exactly are you looking for?" she asked.

"Battery chargers or replacement alkaline batteries," Alex declared, drawing up a handful. "You unscrew, I replace?"

"Okay," Megan got up and started carefully unscrewing the backs off of the radios. She made sure the tiny screws were left in a small pile on top of the radio backs they had come from. Meanwhile all of the batteries formed a small pile to the side.

Alex found what they were looking for and began slipping in new batteries with satisfying clicks. The two worked more or less in silence as the rest of the room looked on, unsure of what to do.

"You're really going to do this, aren't you?" Julia asked.

"You really had to ask?" Alex responded. "Anyone else want to come with?" Alex paused and looked out over the rest of the room. No one moved for a second, before Ivy stepped forward.

"I'm in."

"Anyone else?" Alex looked a mixture of apprehensive and accusing. No one else volunteered.

"Fine," they sighed. "Paul, you still up to be mission control?"

"Yes," Paul said neutrally, and Alex threw a radio at him with new batteries. They picked up another and held down the call button.

"Testing, testing. One two, Charlie Tango Foxtrot."

Alex's voice crackled through Paul's radio, and they smiled. "Good, now we have to remember to change frequencies often. Just in case."

Four radios were finished quickly, Paul had one, Alex, Megan and Ivy had the others.

"Last chance," Alex declared, grabbing hold of one of the now battered signs. "Anyone else?"

No one moved, and Megan and Ivy grabbed their signs.

"See you later," Alex smirked in a cruel way before disappearing upstairs. Before she left, Megan could feel Paul's gaze and paused for a second. She almost turned her head to look at him, but stopped herself. Any more arguments from him and her resolve might just shatter.

She followed Alex and Ivy.

* * *

 **11AM Wednesday 10** **th** **November 2038**

Capitol Park was silent.

People were still out and about, but they were few and far between, most sheltering from the weather and increased military presence in their work and homes. Megan wondered whether they should be doing the same thing.

All three of them were bundled up in thick winter clothes, woollen gloves clutching their cardboard signs. Ivy and Megan were starting to question the wisdom of this, but Alex had a determined glint in their eye.

They weren't going to stop, and the other two were here now.

They stood outside the closed CyberLife store and began to chant. Their voices, despite shouting, were swallowed up by the silence, barely seeming to go further than the statue they were standing near.

The few people that were there barely spared them a glance before briskly walking to their desired destination. The trio began to pace in a circle in an attempt to keep warm, as the weak sun was doing almost nothing to help.

An hour stretched into two and Megan could no longer feel her fingers or toes. This was pointless, going nowhere. Why did she think this was a good idea?

Then, a fourth voice joined in.

"Androids are Alive! Androids are Alive!" they chanted, and Alex beamed at them before renewing their own chant with vigour.

Slowly, slowly, they built up more people. More people who either didn't know or didn't care that what they were doing was illegal. Five, ten, fifteen people, all shouting and chanting. Someone brought heat packs and drinks as midday went past.

The chanting halted as police sirens were heard in the distance.

Alex was the only one who didn't seem to care. They continued chanting, face red and nose running from the cold. People were bolstered by Alex's show of defiance and kept shouting.

Megan's radio crackled, and she pulled it from her waist.

"Good news guys, you're on the local news," Paul informed.

"Thank you Beep Boop," since they were using radios they went to their usernames, despite how cumbersome they were. "I'm sure AAA Battery will be glad to hear."

"Be careful about the police," Paul added, almost as if he could hear the sirens.

"Will do. Over and out."

Megan felt nervousness build in her belly as the sirens got louder. Thoughts clamoured in her head, begging for attention, but she focused on how loudly she could shout, even as her throat began to hurt.

A group of police cars pulled up, accompanied by a military vehicle. The chanting began to die down, even Alex stopped as a police officer stepped out of the car. A weary looking detective emerged from the car, looking he'd more than enough for one day and was probably about to shoot someone.

"This gathering is illegal!" he called out, not bothering with a megaphone given the size of the crowd. "Disperse and return to your homes!"

The crowd shuffled awkwardly. Those who joined recently quickly left, but Alex, ever stubborn, did not budge.

"The right to assembly has been suspended!" the detective called out. "Disperse, or you will be arrested!"

Ivy muttered to Alex.

"Let's go. We can't help if we're arrested."

Alex didn't respond, their jaw set.

"Alex!"

Megan looked around as more police officers began to exit their cars. "Alex," she hated how whiny she sounded, but it got Alex's attention.

The older student looked at Megan, her exactly five foot height making her appear younger than she was, and more scared. They looked at the approached officers, and swore.

"Go, now," was all they said, but it was too late. The police were done waiting.

They charged at the remains of the protest, and Megan ducked away, avoiding an officer's arms. Alex was grabbed by several and handcuffed, which Megan couldn't help but stare at.

Everything descended in chaos. People were running in all directions, some yelling, some screaming. Someone grabbed Megan's shoulder and pulled her away. A quick look told her that it was Ivy, it was disconcerting to see her face so close without her excessive make up.

Ivy pulled her hood over her distinctive hair, and Megan did the same as the taller girl pulled her along. They avoided the police and ducked into small streets. Ivy's legs were long, and Megan struggled to keep up, her breath coming out in harsh gasps as her heartbeat thundered in her ears.

Ivy stopped and grabbed both of Megan's shoulders, making her look up at her.

"You know the way back?" she asked, trying to sound calm as police sirens wailed somewhere. Megan nodded, not trusting her voice. "Good. We need to split up. Change the frequency to 5. Meet you in a few hours."

Megan nodded, and Ivy disappeared.

For a second Megan stood there, catching her breath and trying to figure out what to do now. Her thoughts moved at the speed of a glacier and a lightning strike at the same time.

"You there!" someone shouted. It wasn't really that threatening, and if she waited she would seem less suspicious.

She was already running when that thought crossed her mind.

"Stop right there! Detroit police!"

Dumpsters coming up. Megan managed to get into an oddly familiar mindset, of when she was a cheerleader. She could identify the good ways to go around it or over it. Over was quicker.

She jumped and hauled herself over in one smooth movement. She landed in a crouch and pushed off of her toes to keep going.

She passed by the side door to a restaurant and pulled down a stack of pallets as she passed before ducking out into the main street. Slightly busy, as it was lunch time. Armed military were patrolling.

Megan initially panicked before ducking behind a bus shelter. She couldn't draw attention to herself, so walk, not run.

She gave it a few minutes for the officer to pass by before moving, hands deep in her pockets. She'd dropped her sign at the statue without realising.

She could get the bus, or the train. Disappear into the crowd. Yes. That's she needed to do.

 **You'll fuck it up**

The voice taunted her, and she ignored it, glancing up quickly to read street signs. The nearest station wasn't far. All she had to do was walk calmly.

 **Calm? You have social anxiety. You are never calm. You'll draw attention to yourself**

Megan's shoulders covered her ears, although she could convince herself that it was from the cold.

 **They'll ask for ID. They'll recognise you.**

 _They'll remember the hair and forget everything else._

 **Small female with bright red hair leaving the Capitol Park area. Not suspicious at all**

 _My ID says I'm a student. That'll clear it up. They'll assume_

 **Students usually do protests. And they interviewed Oscar the other day**

 _Oscar wasn't with us_

 **No, but were you in shot?**

Megan didn't have an answer. The voice laughed in her ear as she reached the train station and showed her ID to the guard.

"Sorry ma'am, I just got a report that a young woman matching your description was fleeing an illegal protest. I'm going to have to ask you a few questions," the soldier motioned her to one side, out of the way of the train doors.

 **Told you so**

Megan swallowed the lump in her throat that threatened to make her cry. She needed to be calm, she needed to avoid suspicion.

"Where have you just come from?"

"College," Megan was surprised how calm her voice was.

"All the schools are shutting down."

"Last day. We had a quiz we couldn't miss, especially if human staff could be spared," Megan's voice was getting faster, and she wasn't looking at the soldier.

 **Great way to not draw suspicion**

"You seem nervous miss. Is everything okay?"

"I usually get the bus home. Not used to the train. I have anxiety," the responses came out in a quick staccato fashion.

"One last question. Are you familiar with the name Alex Briar?"

"No," Megan said, far too quickly. The soldier paused, clearly thinking.

"I suggest you stay at home now ma'am, until this mess is sorted out," he said as certainly as he could. In truth it looked like the teenager in front of him was about to burst into tears, and he did not want to deal with the scene that would make.

"Thank you," the next train pulled in on cue, and Megan got on. She made herself stand until it left the station, and then she collapsed into a seat, swallowing tears. She would not cry. She would not cry. Not here. Not in public.

Her mind drifted to Ivy and Alex, and she started to shake. Alex had been arrested and Ivy, fuck knows where Ivy was. She could be anywhere from a back street to the back of a police car.

She began to tap her finger against the seat, trying to keep a steady rhythm. It was hard, and she lost the rhythm a few times, but slowly her breathing calmed.

The radio crackled, turning some heads.

"Nervousness Incarnate. Come in Nervous Incarnate. Over," Paul's voice came through, and she realised that she'd forgotten to change the channel.

"Here. Over," she said into quietly.

"What happened? I saw police and the protest scatter. Over."

"Tell you later. Switching off. Over and Out," Megan switched off the radio and returned it to her belt. She didn't want to think about it. Not yet.

She had to show her ID to the next guard when she exited the train, and had to answer the same questions. She was a little more prepared now, and the soldier let her go with the same warning. Stay at home.

* * *

So, a lot to unpack, first, a longer chapter than usual, since there wasn't really a good point to cut it without leaving it too short or too long. Long time followers will know that I prefer too long over too short.

Also, Wednesday in this game is interesting, since bugger all happens in terms of canon. I kid you not anything that happens that's shown in game happens at 4.17PM at the earliest, depending if Carl is dead or not. Since that this based on Jacksepticeye's playthrough, Carl is still alive, so nothing happens until 7.31pm. The only thing that actually affects this story is President's Warren's press conference, which I will cover.

Anyway, my point is that Wednesday is great day to mess with, because almost anything can happen without messing too much without canon.

Thursday is pretty much the same actually, since again, bugger all happens until close to 11pm.

Other Options Flowchart

(Megan) Change mind

(Paul) Volunteer to go protest

(Megan) Last chance to change mind

(Megan) Say nothing. Stand with Alex. Be firm. (Wrong choice could lead to 'Megan Arrested' Ending)

(Megan) Stay with Ivy

QTEs. Dodge police officers. Escape police officers. Hide. (If failed could lead to 'Megan Arrested' Ending)

Staying with Ivy will initiate a different scenario but will have similar outcomes. Either arrested or make it back to Alex's.


	32. Chapter 32

...WTF was that last review?

* * *

 **1.30PM Wednesday 10** **th** **November 2038**

Megan walked quickly as snow started to fall, sticking to her eyelashes as she tried to bury herself into her coat.

She reached Alex's house after half an hour of walking and she pushed on the door. Realising it was locked, she rang the doorbell.

Julia answered in seconds, and the relief of seeing a friendly face was suddenly too much. Megan sniffed in the cold and blinked as tears began to fall.

"Megan! Thank God, get in get in," Julia assured the younger girl in and quickly moved her to the couch in Alex's living room. "Where's Alex and Ivy? Paul said that they'd made arrests."

A choking sob suddenly forced its way up Megan's throat, making it hard to breathe.

"They, Alex, I don't..."

Julia shushed gently and rubbed her hands over Megan's arms to get some warmth in. "It's okay, it's okay. Take your time."

"It's not okay, it's not okay!" Megan insisted, fat tears starting to roll down her face and hating everything about it.

"Okay, breathe. Do you want me to get Paul?"

Megan nodded, almost surprising herself at how quickly she latched onto the android, even when he wasn't there.

"Alright, I'll go get him. You just sit and breathe," Julia's presence was gone and Megan tried to do just that.

Paul was up quickly and sitting next to her, not quite touching, not yet.

"Megan, my hand is right next to you-" Paul never got to finish his calming sentence before Megan's hand gripped his in a vice like grip. "You're safe now," he added.

A mug of hot chocolate appeared on the floor by Megan's foot, and without letting go of Paul she reached down to grab it. It was still too hot to drink, but she felt the warmth bleed in through her glove, and relished it.

Paul gave her time to calm down, and had to admit that the warm drink seemed to help. After a while he finally asked the question that everyone was thinking.

"What happened?"

Megan liked her lips nervously. She still hadn't taken off her winter gear and suddenly felt like she was baking, yet she made no move to do anything about it.

"Alex was arrested," she got out. "Ivy, Ivy and I split up. I don't know where she went."

"Did she change the channel on the radio?"

"Yeah, to five."

"Good, we can find her," carefully, Paul's other hand came up to rub her shoulder. "You must be boiling."

Megan nodded in agreement, and reluctantly let go of Paul's hand so she could shed layers. Her coat, hoodie, gloves and boots lay in a pile on the floor when she gripped his hand again and curled up on the couch, hot chocolate balanced precariously in her other hand.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, and Paul, as always, caught it.

"What for?"

"Leaving them behind. I should have done something."

"There was nothing you could have done. Alex made their choice; they could have run with you and Ivy."

"I should have stayed with Ivy. Made sure she was okay."

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Paul wrapped an arm over her shoulder and pulled her close. "She's clever and determined. She'll come back."

"What if she doesn't?" Megan half noticed that Paul wasn't warm. She'd noticed it before, but it always surprised her that he didn't emanate the same body warmth as a human.

"Then she doesn't. We can't help her right now."

"I should have tried!" Megan cried, and Paul shook his head.

"No, if you had tried you wouldn't be here now. The fewer of us behind bars, the better."

Despite the lack of body heat, Megan still nestled close to Paul, carefully placing the hot chocolate on the floor.

"I still feel like I should have."

"I know, but I'm glad you didn't."

The two sat in silence, only Megan's breathing making any noise.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For being here. For, deviating, for me? I don't think I ever thanked you for that."

Paul felt Thirium flush into his face, making him blush.

"Not, not a problem."

"...I lied you know, about not doing that for a while," Megan admitted.

"I know."

"You knew?" Megan asked, incredulous, but still too comfortable to move.

"On my first day I found bloodstained razor blades in your bathroom trash can. I know it's unlikely you had emptied it, but the blades were right at the top."

Megan nodded. "You're not mad at me for lying?"

Paul, surprisingly, laughed, which made his whole body rumble. "Of all things to be mad at you for, lying about that is not one of them."

"Okay, thank you," Megan yawned and curled up tighter.

Paul started to suggest they go back downstairs to sleep properly, even if it was only around two o'clock. However, Megan looked far too comfortable, so decided to let himself be a pillow for now.

Once Megan was at least dozing, her carefully picked her up, collected her clothes and went downstairs. The others would want to know what happened and they were going to be louder the longer they waited. He also needed to get hold of Ivy if she had indeed changed the channel, although, someone else could do that.

He ended up carrying Megan like a small child, something she would find deeply embarrassing, but given the stressful few days they'd had, he was willing to let it go. For now. If they survived this it could be used as excellent ammunition for teasing.

He quickly reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around. Most of group were milling around listlessly. Some talked, others picked at the abandoned cardboard signs, others watched the tv for any scrap of news.

Julia was waiting for them at the bottom and spoke quietly to not get everyone running.

"Any news?"

"As we thought; Alex has been arrested."

Julia sucked in air through her teeth, but nodded, unsurprised. "Out of all of us, it was either going to be them or Allison. Ivy?"

"She and Megan split up. Her radio's on channel five and that's all we know."

Julia nodded again. "I'll give her call, shall I take your radio? Since you have your hands full," a smirk tugged at her lips, and Paul returned it.

"Go for it. I'll set her down somewhere," Paul looked around for one of the spare mattresses. Most of them were being sat on, but there was still one in the far corner that was free. He idly noticed the temperature, and decided that a hot water bottle would be a good idea as well.

"So, even though you're deviant, you're still at her beck and call?" Julia asked, raising an eyebrow. Paul smirked in response.

"I know for a fact that she would be mortified if she knew I was doing this. I imagine some part of her expects to wake up on that couch," he looked down at her, red hair tickling his nose. "I'm, fond, of her, I suppose. She needed someone in her life and I happened to arrive on her doorstep."

"That's sweet," Julia acknowledged. "I'm guessing nothing, romantic, is happening?"

"No," Paul was quick to say. "Not even close. We are good friends, that is all."

"Of course," Julia smiled. "Alex has been rubbing off on me. I'll call Ivy," she plucked the radio from Paul's belt and fiddled with the settings to get it to the right channel. Paul walked over to the empty mattress and carefully peeled Megan off of him. Once on the mattress she curled up against the cold and Paul arranged a blanket around her, before grabbing a hot water bottle and going upstairs.

As the kettle boiled he took a moment to think. This was getting dangerous, very dangerous. He was a liability to everyone here, being an android. Part of him considered just leaving, taking his chances with the military and making sure everyone was safe.

One thing stopped him. Megan. She would never let him. At least, she'd never want him to go. It wasn't up to her in the end, it was _his_ decision.

That thought almost sent a shiver through his coding. Even now, the thought of living for himself was, not alien, but unusual. Falling back on what he knew, caring for humans, doing what they asked, that was familiar, comforting even. Megan had been a great support in all of that. Talking to him and taking his thoughts into account like an equal.

Yet, he was still the one cooking for her, cleaning up, taking out the trash, grocery shopping etc. Things someone subservient would do. Yet, he enjoyed them, felt a sense of satisfaction at a job well done.

Paul let out a sigh as the kettle reached boiling point. This wasn't black and white. He didn't _have_ to remain with Megan. He didn't _have_ to keep doing things for her and with her. He _wanted_ to. It wasn't just because her apartment was familiar and comfortable, there was something else. He couldn't properly explain what or why, but there was

Maybe, maybe it went back to when he deviated. Megan was on an almost literal knife edge, and he worried that if he left, she would fall. Out of everything he could ever want, someone dying because of him was pretty damn low.

He poured the water into the water bottle and put it back in its cover. He would wait and see. If things got worse, he would talk about leaving.

* * *

So, nice long internal monologue from Paul, because really, it's his affection for Megan that's making him stay now, otherwise he would just take his chances. There's not actually much of change in threat level, since no one outside of AA and the Beckwiths knows he's an android, but it make him feel better.

Also, I know kettles aren't really a thing in the US, but I have not idea how else you would do a hot water bottle. Unless you don't have hot water bottles in the US? If that's the case you are missing out.

Other Options Flowchart

(Megan) Don't mention lying

(Paul) Get upset. Brush it off

(Paul) Wake her up to walk downstairs

(I'm considering having Paul leaving as an genuine option, which would lead to an ending and scenario I haven't thought about yet. I'll consider it)


	33. Chapter 33

**6PM Wednesday 10** **th** **November 2038**

Megan stirred in time for the six o'clock news. At first she was confused. She was pretty sure she'd fallen asleep against Paul, why was she in bed essentially, with a hot water bottle no less?

The answer lay in the aforementioned android. Of course he had done this, no one else would!

Megan groaned as it occurred to her that he would have to have carried her downstairs, and she wondered how he did it. Bridal style? Fireman's lift? Against his shoulder like a child? All of them were equally embarrassing.

She quickly escaped the blanket, although after a moment's thought she retrieved the hot water bottle and hugged it. It was cold now.

She padded over to the other side of the basement, where the tv, and everyone else, was.

"Any news?" she asked, concerned when she still didn't see short hair the colours of the pansexual flag.

"Ivy's on her way," Paul assured, looking like he knew exactly how embarrassed Megan was. "She managed to evade the police and is making her way back by foot."

"They were still doing ID checks at public transport," Megan remembered. "I only got away with it because my hair colour is natural, I imagine."

"I thought that too," admitted Maggie, who had her arms wrapped around herself like a hug. "I'm still worried."

"I'm sure she's fine," Lucas assured before turning his attention back to the news. "The President's going to make a statement in a few hours."

"Who gives a shit about what Warren has to say?" Nathan scoffed. "When will you lot start picking better Presidents? First Trump then this one!"

"Most of us weren't old enough to vote when she came into office," Oscar shot back at the Brit. "Either way, we're stuck with her."

"History, if not learned from, will repeat," Nathan smirked, and Paul suddenly stepped between them, as Oscar looked like he was going to try and flatten the musician.

"That's enough you two. There are bigger problems than the current President of the United States. How about we pay attention to the news now, and worry about Warren later?"

Nathan and Oscar glared at each other, but did not escalate.

"Nicely said Paul," noted Allison, and he nodded at her.

They turned their attention back to the television in time for a report on the protest earlier.

"Earlier today, in complete defiance of suspension of the right to assembly, a small pro android protest formed outside the main CyberLife store in Detroit. It began with three ringleaders and miraculously, began to draw more support.

"Detroit police were called and only one of the ringleaders was arrested. University of Detroit student Alex Briar, aged 20, is currently in police custody. The two other ringleaders fled the scene, and have been identified from CCTV as Ivy Stanford and Megan Carroll, both fellow students at the University of Detroit. If anyone has any information of their whereabouts please contact the police."

Megan stared as her college mugshot appeared on screen next to Ivy's. She looked over at Paul, thinking about what she was going to say.

"I guess you're not the only one Wanted now."

Paul's lips twitched into a smile as the report turned into something else unimportant. "I suppose not. I thought you'd be more worried about this?"

"I am," Megan assured, "but also, kind of excited? I've never broken the law before."

Paul rolled his eyes. "Please don't turn into an adrenaline junkie. I don't think I could take the stress."

Megan laughed at that and nudged with her elbow. "How could I? With you keeping my feet on the ground."

Maggie, Julia and Allison all shared the same conspiring look before drifting away from the tv. The report had moved to the weather, so unless Markus's surviving deviants or the other factions of Android Allies did something drastic, nothing was happening until the President's speech. Which they would all rip to pieces.

There was a hurried knock on the door, and everyone looked up as Julia went to go answer it. Maggie followed her up, and everyone heard her cry of 'oh thank God!'

"It appears Ivy is back," Paul summarised.

"No shit Sherlock," Lucas smirked, getting up from his seat. "Wonder what took her so long?"

"Normally it would take roughly several hours to reach this house from the centre of the city by foot," Paul rattled off. "Given that the military are still combing the city, the poor weather and that the police are looking for her, this would have increased her travel time significantly."

"...Noted," Lucas responded, a little surprised by the sudden spout of information.

Everyone looked over at the stairs, but were surprised when just Julia came down.

"Ivy and Maggie are otherwise, occupied," she answered the unasked question.

Lucas chuckled to himself. "I suppose they would want a good kiss after all that."

Paul looked sharply at him. "I was not aware they were in a romantic relationship."

"They don't like to flaunt it," Lucas shrugged. "But yeah, they've been dating for a while now."

Paul had nothing to say to that, and neither did anyone else. When the two eventually made it back downstairs, faces flushed and clothes messed up, there was some teasing and wolf whistling. Megan just rolled her eyes at the display and turned her attention back to the tv, hot water bottle still clutched against her stomach.

"So, I hear I'm a wanted criminal?" Megan looked over to see Ivy raising an eyebrow. "After tonight, I'm not surprised!"

"How much property damage did you cause?" asked Lucas, half joking.

"A little bit," Ivy admitted, "I may have dented some trash cans, scared some old ladies, and nearly bring down a fire escape. It was old!" she protested, and everyone laughed, glad to have one more member back.

"I guess Alex is still with the police?" Ivy asked, and the mood disappeared.

"Yeah," Julia answered. "Maybe, maybe I should talk to my uncle?"

"I don't think that will help," Paul interjected. "Alex has in fact broken the law, and the police will be stretched thin right now. Alex is safe where they are."

Julia nodded, running a hand through her dark hair. "I hope you're right."

* * *

 **9.24PM Wednesday 10** **th** **November 2038**

They all gathered in front of the tv for the President's speech several hours later. Julia had supplied some popcorn that had been hiding in a cupboard somewhere, and Allison, Maggie, Ivy, Nathan and Lucas were happily eating it.

They were greeted to President Warren walking towards the podium in the White House, all smiles and waves as cameras flashed. She got settled, and began to speak in an oddly halting manner, although it made it difficult to mishear anything.

"At 6Am this morning a national curfew was declared. Civilian movement will be strictly controlled, the right to assembly is suspended, all electronic communications are restricted, and I have granted enhanced powers to our security agencies. In addition to these measures, all androids must be handed over to the authorities immediately. Temporary camps are being set up in all our major cities to contain and destroy them. I am now asking all civilians to co-operate with the authorities, and rest assured that everything in our power is being done to guarantee the security of our nation."

"So basically, nothing Detroit didn't already know," Allison quipped, throwing a kernel of popcorn in her mouth.

"I don't know," Lucas disagreed, following suit. "I don't think we knew the curfew was country wide."

"I feel sorry for those who want to check on family," Julia suddenly interjected as various reporters vied for the President's attention. "If communication is down countrywide then no one can check if anyone's okay."

A simultaneous sensation of guilt gripped those still in college. Their parents had to be freaking out.

The President picked a reporter to respond to, and they asked.

"Has the leader of the deviants been apprehended?"

"The deviant that is known as Markus has not been located yet, but we will soon track it down and neutralise it."

Paul let out the heaviest sigh of relief out of everyone, despite not needing to breath. Markus wasn't dead.

The next reporter was called upon.

"Is it true that the androids could hack our IT systems, like nuclear power plants and military bases?"

"All androids working on sensitive sites have been neutralised and all IT systems have been suspended to avoid any risks of hacking. The situation is under control."

"Can you hack things Paul?" Megan asked, genuinely curious, and Paul shrugged.

"I've never tried," he admitted.

Yet another reporter.

"Many believe that androids are a new form of intelligent life. Do you have any comment?"

"That's ridiculous. Next question please."

"Fuck off!" Allison and Ivy both threw their popcorn at the screen. Surprisingly it was Nathan who exploded next.

"That's clearly not ridiculous you ignorant, incompetent, senile old bat!" he bellowed, making everyone jump. "If they weren't sentient, they wouldn't be fucking revolting now would they?!"

"Nathan, we get it," Julia tried to calm him down. "And she can't hear you."

"I know, I know," Nathan mumbled before sitting back down, just in time for the next journalist's question.

"What's going to happen to CyberLife? Will androids be banned definitively?"

"We're working very closely with Cyberlife to neutralise all deviants. I won't make any comments about anything else until we have dealt with the android question."

Megan glanced at Paul, and gripped his hand, giving it what she hoped was a comforting squeeze. He noticed the pressure and looked down at his hand before smiling warmly at Megan, the gesture appreciated.

"Madam President, public opinion seems to have become increasingly favourable to the deviants, particularly since they've adopted a peaceful approach. How do you feel about this?"

"Damn straight," Oscar uttered the first thing he'd said to the group all evening, almost rumbling over the President's response.

"Public opinion is one thing, the security of the state is another. These deviants are dangerous and my highest priority is to protect the American people. Thank you. That will be all."

"Oh fuck off!" Lucas rolled his eyes as the President walked away, desperate reporters still shouting their questions. "They're as dangerous as any other human, and frankly, humans have probably harmed more androids."

Paul looked across the group, most of them simmering with pent up fury at the President and how she was handling this. He felt an odd sensation in his chest cavity which he struggled to describe.

Megan noticed his face twist in confusion and gave him a nudge. "How are you feeling?"

"I... I don't know."

"Describe it."

"Warm," he said instantly. "Almost like, happy, but, it's not quite that."

"Anything else?" Megan carefully stole some of Maggie's popcorn without her noticing.

"I think, I think I'm grateful, and, not quite believing what just happened, but in a good way?"

"Ride the shitstorm," Megan reminded. "Is that everything?"

"I, I think so. Yes. I can't quite believe that everyone's on my side, even if that is illogical, and I'm grateful that they all are," Paul looked at the group again, no one seemed to hear what he had said, as they were all discussing the conference. There was still some tension in the air, as Alex was obviously absent, but everyone was pulling together in spite of that.

"Easy Spock, don't blow a circuit," Megan smirked at him, and he gave her a gentle shove to show that didn't appreciate the comparison. Megan merely laughed and shoved him back.

Paul was pretty certain that were people were watching now, and money had exchanged hands. Although what they betting on he wasn't sure.

Megan suddenly yawned and stood up, still yawning.

"I'm going to sleep," she announced, and Paul nodded, a mischievous grin forming.

"I don't suppose you would like a bed time story?"

Megan flipped him the bird as she walked to the mattress she'd been sleeping on earlier, and Paul laughed.

* * *

A fairly chilled chapter this time, nothing overly exciting. Since this is based off Jacksepticeye's playthrough, the questions Warren was asked were selected on his playthrough.

Before things get out of hand; Nathan is British, and I don't know of any British person who has anything good to say about him, and since Warren is a combination of Hilary and Trump (look up the bio) I would imagine that some British people would still be pissed about her.

Finally, Ivy and Maggie, the second same sex couple in the story. I'm flip flopping on whether Maggie is bi or lesbian. It won't make much of a difference in this scenario, but if I want to do one shots with her I will need to decide. And, Ivy was obviously pan, come on!

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) Step between them. Favour Oscar. Favour Nathan.

(Megan) Be serious. Worry.

(Megan) Place hand on shoulder. Smile at him.


	34. Chapter 34

**12.30PM Thursday 11** **th** **November 2038**

The next day was quiet. No one really wanted to venture outside after what had happened yesterday. As the President had promised, the curfew had gone country wide, and many people who worked in industries mostly staffed by androids found that they didn't have work to go to anyway.

There were reports of people crossing the border to Canada in droves, and unfortunately the few androids who had tried had all been detained.

Megan felt sick at that point. It was coming out now exactly what was happening to the androids that weren't shot on sight. They were being taken to Recycling Plants, which, frankly, sounded much worse than being shot in the head. At least that was quick.

There was no word about Alex. The phone rang a few times, but when Julia checked and didn't recognise the number, they let it ring.

The crock pot was running low, and after making sure that no one could see into the kitchen, Paul set about cooking. Everyone insisted that he didn't have to, but it was something to do, something familiar. He had over a thousand recipes in his database, and each one could be altered according to taste, dietary requirements, and availability.

Megan joined him in the kitchen after a while, as he was cutting vegetables.

"I do not need assistance, thank you," he pre-empted.

"I was wondering what you were making."

"I am currently adding ingredients to the Crock pot, and once that is done I will begin making lunch. I was thinking grilled sandwiches."

"Sounds good. Shall I ask what everyone wants?"

"If you would please. Oh, and I won't do any extreme unhealthy options, such as chocolate and marshmallows."

"Got it."

Megan left him alone in the kitchen, and was back in ten minutes with a paper list. He could hear it, and he knew Megan would never remember the orders of seven people.

"Just pin it to the refrigerator please," Paul nodded in the direction of the appliance, not pausing.

Megan did as he asked and hovered awkwardly.

"Is there anything you want me to do?"

"Other than stay safe?"

"You know what I meant. Why are you obsessed with that anyway?" Megan went over to the counter to watch him precisely cut tomatoes.

"I am not obsessed," Paul defended.

"Then, why? I know you said you were comfortable at mine, but surely you only stayed out of nowhere else to go."

What might be described as pain flooded Paul's chest. "You honestly think that was the reason I stayed?"

"Well, it makes sense!" Megan responded defensively. "There can't be any other reason to put up with me!"

"I stayed because I like you!" Paul cried, almost missing his knife strike.

"Yeah, fine, you like me now, but when you first became deviant?"

"When I first became deviant I was in the presence of a young woman who just admitted that she was suicidal," Paul refused to pull punches. "I could not leave in good conscience. Was that what you wanted to hear?"

"Is that still not the reason?"

"I won't deny it played a part," Paul tipped the tomatoes into the bubbling stew pot, calmer now. "But it is far from the only reason. You, Megan, even when I was still following my program, never saw me as just an android. If I truly did not care about or like you even before then, even if I didn't recognise it, then I would not have broken through my programming when I did."

He heard Megan's sharp intake of breath, and he knew she didn't believe him.

"I know what you're thinking," he tried a different tactic. "That voice in your head is telling you that I'm lying, that of course I'm just putting up with you and obviously I couldn't have liked you before deviating because I had no emotions. That voice is wrong on all counts," he turned to face Megan, who wasn't looking at him. He knew her well enough to know that she was trying not to cry, and hating herself for it.

"I don't know the ins and outs of android deviation, I can only go off of my own experience. However, I would think that while there is still a single act that makes you deviant, there is some build up. You, and admittedly the Beckwith's, already had an effect on me. Please believe me when I say that I care about you."

"Why?" Megan's voice was thick with unshed tears. "Why do you care?"

Oh boy, she was in a spiral.

"Do I need a reason? You're there to talk me through emotions I don't understand. You're there to talk me down when I get too angry over something, even though I know that scares you. You give me a purpose, even if it does follow close to my original programming."

Megan was crying now, and he wasn't sure if it was entirely sad tears. He slowly walked over and pulled her into a gentle hug. After a few tentative seconds her arms came around his torso to hug him back and she buried her face in his apron.

"I stayed because I wanted to stay," Paul felt something settle in his mind when he said that.

"Thank you," Megan mumbled, "I needed that."

"I know," Paul patted her on the back. "If boredom's getting to you, how about you start getting ingredients together for the grilled sandwiches?"

That had probably been what had caused this. A long time of just sitting and thinking, and Megan's thoughts had begun to spiral. It wasn't guaranteed, but he wasn't surprised.

"Okay," Megan nodded and pulled out, wiping her snotty nose with her sleeve.

"Two things before you do," Paul asserted. "First, find a tissue. Second, wash your hands. You're preparing food after all."

"Yes chef," Megan smirked, her snarkiness shining through.

* * *

 **6PM Thursday 11** **th** **November 2038**

A few hours later Megan was helping dole out some of the crock pot stew. Again, she didn't need to, Paul had it all in hand, but giving her something to do helped with her mood. You had to be careful not to give her something too easy, as any mistake would make things worse, and also being too easy would make her think he had a low opinion of her capabilities.

Paul struggled not to sigh. When she was in a bad way it was tiring to have to tip toe around every potential outcome, but what else could he do? In truth it was merely a small inconvenience for the benefit of someone else's improved mental health. Not much different to having to walk a little more slowly with someone who broke their leg.

Everyone had basically chilled out all day, although Allison had been hunched over the table, trying to think of new ways to protest and how to organise a mass protest outside the Recycling Centres.

So far, not much luck, and she gratefully accepted a bowl of stew from Megan in order to take a break. Megan read over the sheet of paper Allison had been working on, and found it mostly full of scribbled out words and angrily crossed out ideas.

"Is protesting outside a Recycling Centre a good idea?" she asked after a minute to gather her courage, and Allison shrugged listlessly.

"It would be risky," she admitted. "Just looking at the news they have a heavy military presence, and we have what, three definite branches? Us, Lucas's sister and your brother. Alex had all the details, but I would guess there's maybe thirty between all of us? Not enough, not even close to enough."

Allison shook her head and shoved a spoonful of stew in her mouth. "I didn't realise how much we need Alex," she mumbled.

"You've been doing a good job," Megan was quick to reassure, and Allison laughed.

"I'm hardly much of a leader, and as much as Alex and I disagree, we need those disagreements to get a plan together. The optimist and the pessimist. Together we usually make a pretty decent plan," Allison ran a hand through her blonde hair.

"Not many people have that level of optimism and determination," Megan noted, and Allison agreed.

"Yeah, dangerous levels if you ask me, but, that's what got us off the ground," she gestured to the rest of the group. "What got us here really."

"Yeah, but if they hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to keep Paul safe. I would have gone home to my parents and they'd have given him up," Megan sat down in a nearby chair, upset by the thought.

"I suppose we can be glad for that," Allison nodded. "He's a good guy to have around. Patience of a damn saint."

"You haven't heard him swear," Megan smirked. "Mouth like a sailor when he gets angry."

"Paul? Angry? That I would pay good money to see!" Allison laughed.

"I'm surprised that he didn't flip last night," Megan noted. "That's usually what makes him angry."

"Nathan got there first. I'm going to be using that insult from now on."

"Ignorant, incompetent, senile old bat?" Megan quoted. "Yeah, that's not half bad."

The two settled into a comfortable silence, only slightly broken as Paul handed Megan a bowl of stew with a meaningful look. She looked down at the bowl, not really feeling hungry, but knew he wasn't going to let up until the bowl was at least half empty. She maintained stubborn eye contact as she took spoonful and put in her mouth before swallowing in an over exaggerated manner. Paul nodded approvingly before wandering off.

Allison watched the silent interaction with some amusement. Her bet was looking really good right now.

* * *

A fairly chilled chapter again, and short, but when you see the next chapter, I think you'll understand. That's when it hits the fan.

...I have a cold, and I will use that as an excuse for not being to think of other options. Although I'm not to sure there are many. As always, if you guys spot some I've missed I'd love to hear from you!


	35. Chapter 35

**(Blood warning for this chapter)**

 **7PM Thursday 11** **th** **November 2038**

Everyone had finished eating and were in the process of collecting bowls to take upstairs before there was a heavy pounding at the front door.

Everyone froze and looked up before looking to Julia.

"That's not Alex," she confirmed. "Alex doesn't knock that hard."

She carefully went up stairs and poked her head out of basement door. The door visibly rattled with the next series of pounding knocks.

"We have reason to believe that this property is harbouring criminals. Open up or we will break down the door!"

Julia bristled but didn't say anything. Calling Megan and Ivy criminals was just absurd! Okay, yes, technically they were, but no need to be so dramatic! They formed a peaceful protest, that was all!

There were more knocks and Julia ducked back downstairs.

"They're looking for Ivy and Megan," she informed, and Ivy's face went an interesting shade of red.

"What the fuck?! I could hear them down here! Yeah we broke the law but this is fucking ridiculous!"

"The entire country's on edge," Lucas defended reluctantly. "It's not an excuse!" he backtracked as Ivy and Maggie glared at him. "It's a reason!"

Paul meanwhile had stepped next to Megan and gripped her hand.

"Paul you need to hide," Megan hissed, and the android shook his head.

"They're not looking for me, they're looking for you. I'll be fine."

There was a crash from upstairs as the door was broken down and everyone looked at each other in panic. Julia recovered first and locked the door to the basement, sealing them inside.

"We're sitting ducks," rumbled Oscar.

"No we're not," Allison suddenly declared. "You two hide on the mattresses," she pointed to Ivy and Megan. "Everyone else pile blankets on the mattresses to make it look like an unorganised mess. Paul, mess up your hair."

Paul made a small noise of protest, but as Megan ripped herself from his grip and dived for the nearest mattress he had no choice. He ruffled his hair so that auburn strands hung in his face and stuck up in all directions as if he'd just rolled out of bed.

The boys all followed suit and everyone sat down on the mattresses, giving the impression that they all had just woken up, kicking cardboard signs into the shadows and clearing the table. Everyone in place, Julia turned off the light, unlocked the door and ran back down to sit on a mattress.

Someone shoved the door open and around five soldiers in black armour charged downstairs with flashlights on their guns, pointing them in every direction. Julia was the first up as the soldier's split up to cover the room.

"What the hell is going on?" she yawned.

These soldiers had no patience, probably after three days of hunting androids.

"Everyone to the centre of the room. Now!" one of the barked, and everyone sleepily complied, or did their best to look sleepy. Paul tried not to look at the pile of blankets where Megan was hidden. Too late he remembered his baseball cap, but he couldn't get it now.

One soldier had the bright idea of turning on the light, although the android noted that the cardboard protest signs looked like general basement trash. Four soldiers looked at the group while the fifth looked around the room, pulling blankets off of mattresses.

"What are you all doing in the basement?" one soldier asked, a little more friendly, but still all business. The guns had not dropped.

"We were doing a mass group study," to everyone's surprise, Oscar was the one who came up with the excuse.

"During a national emergency?" the soldier didn't believe him.

"We started before the curfew was called," Allison added like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "We thought it would be a good idea to continue it until things calmed down."

"You are aware that you are at the permanent address of a criminal?"

"I've known the Briar's all my life!" Julia defended, and Paul stifled a groan. "They're not criminals!"

"Their child, Alex, has been arrested for holding an illegal protest," the soldier paused to see their reactions.

Julia deflated. "Okay, that's sounds like Alex."

"Hold on," Allison asked defiantly. "If Alex has been arrested, who are you looking for?"

"Alex Briar had two accomplices, Ivy Stanford and Megan Carroll."

"Who and who?" Nathan asked.

"Never heard of them," Lucas added.

Paul glanced at Maggie out of the corner of his eye, neither of them having said a word. Their reactions could make or break this.

He suddenly blinked as one of the soldiers shone their flashlight in his eyes. He remembered the normal human reaction a fraction too late, but shielded his eyes, wincing.

"What the hell?" he tried to inject the right level of annoyed indigence in his voice. All the while trying to ignore the fact that the searching soldier was getting closer to Megan's mattress.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to stand still," the soldier responded, pulling out a temperature gun. Paul froze, suddenly having no idea what to do. If he ran now then suspicion was certain. If he stayed, they would notice his lowered body temperature.

 _Damned if I do, damned if I don't._

Paul braced himself for impact.

The scan was barely completely before the assault rifle was in his face. "On your knees! NOW!" the soldier roared, and Paul complied, putting his hands on his head for good measure.

The soldier looking at blankets stopped what they were doing and joined the group in the centre, with the much better prize. Megan let out a small breath, relieved that she wasn't going to be discovered, but that was minor compared to what was going on in the middle of the room.

"You're all under arrest for harbouring an illegal android!" another barked and everyone shifted uneasily. The soldier with Paul at gunpoint prepared to fire. Paul closed his eyes.

"NO!" the cry ripped itself from Megan's throat and she was moving before she'd even registered what she doing.

The blankets were flung to one side and Megan charged for the group. She ducked under one gun pointed her way, side stepped another, and grabbed the gun pointed at Paul.

"Get off!" the soldier snarled, more out of irritation. Megan wasn't a threat. All she was was five skinny feet of desperation.

She was thrown backwards into Paul, knocking him over. Megan found her balance again and charged right back in, grabbing the assault rifle once again.

Paul sat back up and looked on in horror as Megan and the soldier wrestled for the gun. What she lacked in strength she made up for in tenacity, and she refused to let go.

The solider yanked his gun up into the air and Megan dangled from it, legs kicking wildly. He swung it left and right and Megan hung on with inhuman strength. None of the soldiers stepped in to help, all other guns trained on the group so no one else would intervene.

Finally he managed to swing the butt of the gun to hit her in the head. She let go with a cry of pain and staggered back, clutching her temple as her vision swam.

While she was distracted the gun was pointed back at Paul. Megan was already moving, grabbing the barrel and pulling it away at the last second.

The crack bang of the gun went off next to her left ear and she immediately beset by fierce ringing. Someone screamed, making her good ear ring for a second.

She staggered back, spots of black appeared in her vision as she tried to re-orientate herself. Oscar had full on tackled some of the soldiers while Julia and Allison went for two more. Ivy shot out of her hiding spot and cracked a chair over the last one's head.

Megan felt her legs give out beneath her, even though she wasn't entirely sure why.

 _Paul._ Her mind reminded. _Where's Paul?_

Her eyes drifted over to the android. The bullet had grazed his right shoulder, but not badly. Circuits sparked and a little blue blood leaked out. His face, his face was fixed on her, mouth open and eyes wide with horror. Why was he so worried?

She followed his gaze to her left shoulder. Her hoodie was soaked with dark red blood.

 _Oh_.

She looked back a Paul, who had travelled the short distance and grabbed her by the arms. His mouth was moving, and it took a few more seconds for the ringing to even begin to clear

"..gan! Megan! Can you hear me?!"

"Just about," she mumbled, unsure how loud she was speaking. The ringing was still there, so even though Paul was shouting, it sounded like he wasn't quite speaking at a normal level.

Paul cursed and began pulling off her hoodie and pulling down her shirt past the shoulder. The fabric reluctantly pulled away with a sucking sound.

"Ringo!" Paul bellowed. "Get a first aid kit. Now! Tudor! Towels and water!"

The two boys shot upstairs as Paul pressed his hands against the injury. The bullet had blasted its way through her shoulder and out the other side. The exit wound was significantly larger than the entry, but neither were good.

Megan finally seemed to realise that she was injured, and pain registered with the force of a freight train.

A strangled half groan half scream of pain exited her mouth, despite all attempts to hold it back. Once that dam was broken then came a torrent of swear words.

The soldiers had all been subdued for now, so everyone who could move went upstairs. Paul made sure Megan didn't move as Nathan and Lucas came back down with what he asked.

Paul used the towels to mop up the worst of the blood before tipping some iodine onto another towel and using that to sterilise. Megan choked back another scream and black dots started to dance again.

That done Nathan passed Paul some thick bandages.

"No sutures?" Paul asked, and Nathan shook his head. Saving his grievances for later he wrapped the bandages tight around Megan's shoulder, murmuring words of comfort the whole time. He had no idea if Megan even heard him, since her ears had to be ringing after the gun shot.

He made up a sling to support the arm and sat back on his heels. Already blood was starting to dot through the bandages, but there was nothing more he could do.

He left the blood soaked hoodie where it was, and ignoring any complaint, picked Megan up. Thankfully she was in too much pain and shock to say anything about being carried, and the four of them left the basement, locking the door behind them.

Everyone else had gathered in the second largest space in the house; the living room. All the curtains were closed and none of lights were on, but everyone's eyes quickly adjusted to the gloom.

"Shit," Julia cursed when Paul walked into carrying Megan. "Shit shit shit!"

"We can't stay here," Allison jumped in before things started to get out of hand. "We attacked soldiers; that's not going to end well."

"And we locked them in the basement with all our signs," Nathan suddenly realised with a groan. "If that gets out..."

"Nevermind that!" Paul all but snarled. "Megan needs medical attention and all of the hospitals are down!"

"Can't you-" Lucas barely got to finish his thought before Paul snapped at him.

"No I can't! I'm designed for home assistance, not surgery!"

"Alright, that's enough!" Allison took charge. "We need to split up."

"All the radios are downstairs," Maggie interjected.

"I'll get them," Oscar volunteered, the most physically intimidating. "Anything else?"

"Guns," Allison's statement got a squawk of disbelief from Nathan.

"You can't be serious!"

"I am. Completely," Allison levelled a glare at Nathan before looking back at Oscar. "Radios and guns if you can."

"Bring up the first aid kit as well," Paul added, kicking himself when he realised that he'd left it down there.

Oscar nodded and disappeared.

With him gone they began to split into smaller groups. Julia went with Ivy and Maggie. Lucas, Nathan and Allison went with each other.

Paul stood in the middle of the room, having not released his grip on Megan. She was still conscious, though in a lot of pain.

Oscar came up a few minutes later, and Julia left to lock the door behind him. The footballer's arms were piled high with all the equipment they'd asked for, plus a few blankets.

He dumped it all in the living room, and Allison took charge.

"We have three groups right now. Coubertin, you join Beep Boop and Nervousness Incarnate. Everyone who knows how to shoot grab a gun, each group takes a radio."

Paul didn't know whether to find the use of their 'code names' hilarious or inappropriate. At least they were carrying out Alex's initial function for them.

Ivy, Oscar and Julia grabbed a hand gun, which was what Oscar had grabbed. Carrying assault rifles would be too conspicuous. To everyone's surprise Paul carefully set Megan down, and grabbed one as well. He checked the number of rounds before clicking the safety on and tucking into his back pocket.

"You know how to shoot?" Allison asked.

"It's easy to work out," Paul grabbed the blanket and wrapped Megan up in it. He reached for the first aid kit and shoved some spare bandages in his pocket in his search for painkillers. Julia, guessing his thoughts, rolled a bottle of water across the floor.

Megan groaned at the offer of painkillers, starting to feel a little dizzy. Although whether that was down to the clock on the head or not was uncertain. She took them though, and Paul, suddenly noticing a small trickle of blood from her temple, bandaged that up as well.

He suddenly mentally kicked himself, there was a high chance for hypovolemic shock and he was doing everything wrong!

In picking her up again he was quick to rectify, making sure her head was lower than her feet. It wasn't ideal, but given the situation, it was the best he had.

"Alright, let's move," Allison declared. Oscar had grabbed a radio for their group and threw it to Paul, who attached it to his belt loop. "Main priority is to lay low. Beep Boop, Coubertin, your objective to make sure Nervousness Incarnate doesn't die."

Paul nodded, he didn't need telling.

They all left through the back door and split up through the neighbourhood in different directions. It was dark, and had snowed again sometime during the day. Curfew would be in full effect.

"You're injured too," Oscar mumbled to Paul as they started half running through back streets, careful not to jostle Megan's injury.

"I'm fine," he insisted. He'd run a diagnostic. The bullet hadn't hit anything important.

"You better not be lying," Oscar narrowed his eyes. "We need to be honest about this if we're going to get anywhere."

"I am not lying. Physically, I am fine," Paul insisted. Oscar nodded once.

* * *

So, not a chilled out chapter. Also, I still have a cold, so nothing deep to say.

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) There's nowhere to hide!

(Megan) Hide on a different mattress. (the further away from the centre the more QTEs will have to be done)

(Paul) Run. Attack. (Both of the actions will lead to a Paul Dead Ending)

(Paul) Disobey the soldier. (Gets shot)

(Megan) Stay put. (If relationship with Paul is low enough, the option to save him is not available.)

(Paul) Don't take a gun.

QTEs if Megan fails too many she won't get to Paul in time, leading to a Paul Dead Ending.


	36. Chapter 36

**9.45PM Thursday 11** **th** **November 2038**

The military were still out and about in full force. Paul cursed his red polo shirt and the bright blanket that was wrapped around Megan, but there was nothing he could do now. Oscar was also hardly inconspicuous; they needed to find a hiding spot and soon. Ideally a doctor's surgery.

They ducked into a residential street, full of low houses that all looked identical. Megan was started to shiver in her blanket and had shut her eyes.

"Megan, you need to stay awake," Paul pleaded.

"Dizzy."

Paul mentally cursed. That was the blood loss talking. He needed supplies, and somewhere to hide.

"That house has a broken window," Oscar noted, pointing out a house that looked exactly the same as every other house. "Lights are off. No car."

Paul looked at the house as they crossed the street towards it. A window on the right side of the house indeed broken. It was small though, Oscar wasn't going to fit. Reluctantly he passed Megan to Oscar.

"I'll open the door from the inside," Paul informed Oscar before darting to the side of the house. Looking inside he felt a jolt of alarm when he spotted an enormous St Bernard on the kitchen floor. Thankfully, it appeared to be asleep.

Paul jumped up and grabbed the top of the window frame so that he could enter feet first. He landed lightly and went to the door, glancing at a clock as he did. It was just past ten at night, had it really taken them hours between here and Alex's place? The time had gone so quickly.

Oscar ducked under the front door to get in, and settled Megan on the couch as Paul scouted the house for medical supplies. The whole house was a mess and the air stunk of old booze. It twitched at Paul's old programming, and suddenly all he wanted to do was blitz the place.

 _No. You have another reason to be here._

He found the bathroom, and found a surprisingly well stocked medicine cabinet. He filtered through the first aid kit, stowing away some thick bandages before coming across a suture kit. It was old, but still sealed, which made a little sense in this alcohol riddled house.

He went back to the living room and found that Oscar had propped Megan's legs up on the arm while her head lay on the cushions. Paul sat down on the floor and pulled down the blanket and shirt, revealing that blood was staining the bandages.

He removed the sling and began to peel off the bandages, which made the same sucking noise as her clothes did earlier. The wounds weren't pumping out as much blood now; not that was much of a relief. Paul was worried how much blood there was left to the pump out.

He ripped open the suture pack, and doused them in alcohol from a nearby bottle of whiskey.

"I'm going to start sewing," he informed Megan, who hopefully still couldn't feel much pain. "It might hurt, but I'm going to be as quick as I can."

Megan nodded, still awake thankfully. Oscar disappeared to find the central heating as Paul began to sew, quickly and efficiently. He had assisted the elder Beckwith with her sewing in the past, and found this not much different.

Within a few minutes both wounds were stitched up, although little could be done about the wound between them. Paul quickly applied fresh bandages, and put the sling back on. After all that, he finally let himself relax. It wasn't perfect. Hypervolemic shock was still a possibility and she might need a blood transfusion. However, for now, it was okay.

"How do you feel?" he asked her.

"Still dizzy," she admitted. "I can hear better now."

"Good," Paul checked the bandage at her temple, which seemed fine. "You just rest, but try and stay awake for as long as you can."

Oscar returned at that point.

"Heating's on," he informed.

"Thanks, can you watch Megan? I'm going to see if there's any food."

Oscar sat on the opposite arm of the sofa as Paul went back into the kitchen. It was a mess, with old take out cartons on the table and a trash bag waiting to be taken outside. Paul was once again struck by the urge to tidy up, but he ignored it. This wasn't his problem.

Carefully, so not to wake up the dog, which snored as if the end of the world wouldn't wake it, Paul made his way to the fridge. Finding nothing other than leftovers and beer he turned his attention to the cupboards. There he had more luck; an old bag of pasta and tinned tomatoes. It would do.

He eyed the hob and wrinkled his nose in distaste. It looked like it hadn't been used in a long time. Irritably he grabbed some kitchen towel, wetted it, and wiped down the hob before finding a pot and set it to boil.

He got a second pan, smaller, and poured a little oil in it before putting it on a low heat. He poured the tin of tomatoes in to gently warm, and waited for the original pot to boil before adding pasta.

Roughly ten minutes later he brought through two plates of pasta to Oscar and Megan, remembering that the football player was human and also needed food. He passed the larger plate to him and sat on the floor by Megan. She looked a bit more aware now thankfully. She did not appear to be going further into shock, so maybe they wouldn't have to worry about a hospital after all. Provided that the injury to her head didn't pop up with something worse.

Megan, seeing the food, moved her feet down so that she get herself in a better position. She fought to get her right arm free from the blanket cocoon and used it to prop herself into an upright position. As she did this Paul watched, trying to gauge her mood to see if he would make things better or worse if he tried to help.

Once she was in an upright sitting position Paul passed her the plate, which sat on her knees as she began to eat.

"How do you feel?" Paul asked, and Megan shrugged lopsidedly.

"Warm, not that hungry," she admitted, chasing pasta on her plate. "Not so dizzy anymore."

"Good," Paul rocked back on his heels. He had a burning question, but managed to wait until Megan had placed her plate on the arm of the couch.

"Megan Violet Carroll," he started, and Megan instantly stiffened at the use of her full name. "What the hell were you thinking jumping in front of a gun like that?"

Megan didn't answer immediately. What _had_ she been thinking? She had fully expected to lie there and watch it happen, out of fear if nothing else. Yet, she _had_ done something. She, Megan Carroll, had made a difference and saved someone's life!

The full weight of that hit hard. She had saved the life of someone the military wanted dead.

Megan took a long breath, somehow on a high from that. Maybe she _was_ turning into an adrenaline junkie.

"I, I don't know," she admitted. "I just saw you, and I didn't even think. There was no thought process. I just did it."

Oscar was the one who seemed to fill in the blanks, swallowing his mouthful of pasta.

"You saw someone you cared about in a dangerous position and you acted to protect them. That's all you need to know."

"You got hurt though," Megan nodded to the small drying blue stain on his shirt, and he shrugged easily.

"I've run a diagnostic. The damage is cosmetic."

"Okay," Megan let out a sigh of relief before reaching for her food again. "Do we know who's house this is?"

"Er, no," Paul was not equipped with face scanning so he had no idea who the young boy was in the photo. "An alcoholic I guess."

"Who has a dog," Oscar added.

"Who has a dog," Paul found it miraculous that the beast hadn't woken up yet.

"There's a dog?" Megan sat up a little straighter.

"Yes, a St Bernard. I don't know their name because their tag is buried in their fur."

"Do you not like dogs?" Megan asked, a mischievous grin forming.

"I am wary of animals much larger than an average house cat," Paul shifted uncomfortably, and Megan stifled a laugh behind her right hand.

"Oh, that's adorable," she sniggered, and Paul glared.

"The beast in the kitchen is large enough for you to ride."

"It'll save you carrying me," she grinned. "I can ride them into battle!" she declared with faux bravado.

"A terrifying image to be sure," Paul agreed seriously, and even Oscar was smiling.

"St Bernard's are pretty soppy dogs. Look scary, but aren't," he assured, and Paul shrugged, making sure he could see the dog out of the corner of his eye.

Once the two finished eating, and Paul made sure Megan ate everything, he collected their plates and began to wash up. Given that there were some dirty plates around, he added those to the sink.

"Are you sure you should be washing up in someone else's house?" Oscar asked, the living room and kitchen right next to each other.

"I won't leave a job half done," Paul defended and Oscar looked over at Megan.

"Yeah, that's how he is. Whenever I offer to help he always insists that it's fine."

"It's what I'm designed for!" Paul protested, then froze as the dog let out snort. Everyone fell silent as the dog rolled over, and continued to snore.

"Some guard dog," Megan smirked before settling back on the couch.

Paul decided to not mention the amount of relief he felt when the dog fell back asleep. He did not want to subject himself to more of Megan's teasing.

* * *

So, yeah, take a wild guess on whose house they ended up in. Yes, we will meet the occupant.

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) Pick a different house. (Key for a hidden/rare ending)

(Paul) Tell off. Blow it off. Thank Megan.


	37. Chapter 37

Thank you to Era, for the enthusiastic review, I'm glad you're enjoying it, and just, thank you for the compliment.

* * *

 **10.45PM Thursday 11** **th** **November 2038**

With everything washed and dried Paul sat in front of the couch. There was nothing else to do. If he really wanted to do he could set about tidying the house, but since they were hiding here it didn't seem like a good idea.

Sensing his restlessness Megan started moving around, looking for something. "Have you seen a remote Oscar?"

"Uh, yes, here it is," Oscar found it on the mess that was the coffee table and switched the tv on, quickly lowering the volume. He switched to the 24 hour news channel, which didn't seem to be covering much yet, and settled down.

The two humans got comfortable. Megan had the couch and Oscar ended up leaning against the wall, eyes half lidded as he started to fall asleep. He kept the handgun in his lap, just in case.

Megan was still awake, but was yawning. It was about quarter to 11 now, when he would expect her to least be in bed.

"Sleep if you want," Paul smiled, "I'll watch the news."

"Who will defend you if the beast wakes up?" Megan smirked and Paul irritably swatted her leg, making her laugh quietly.

"That dog seems like it could sleep through an earthquake!" he hissed.

"You're probably not wrong," Megan agreed, yawning again. She arranged herself so that was lying on the couch, feet on the arm.

"Any problems with the sling?"

"No," Megan found a comfortable position. "I just won't be able to sleep on my left side."

"I'm sure you'll survive," Paul smiled, hiding his worry. He was still concerned about blood loss and the head injury, but there was nothing he could do but wait.

Megan leaned her head back and began to drift off, and Paul turned his attention to Oscar.

"Are you comfortable like that?" he asked, and Oscar shrugged.

"It's not bad. You okay?"

Paul paused, before admitting, "I've been better."

"I think that applies to all of us," Oscar chuckled. "Are you sure you don't want that patching up?" he nodded to Paul's right shoulder.

"I won't waste first aid supplies," Paul insisted. "Although I might see if we're lucky and whoever lives here has a sewing kit as well." His shirt now had a hole in it from the bullet.

"I would not bet money on it," Oscar responded, causing Megan to add to the conversation.

"Oh yeah, what were you guys betting on last night?"

"How things will pan out between you two," Oscar let on, and Paul froze.

"How do you mean?"

"I don't know. I wasn't betting."

Megan let out a frustrated groan and it was Paul's turn to laugh.

"Do you really want to know?" he asked.

"Yes. And no. Let's just leave it there."

There was a sudden jungle from the tv which they were all familiar with by this point. It heralded breaking news. They went to a grim faced anchor in the studio, looking directly at the camera.

"We're coming to you live from Detroit where thousands of androids are marching through the city at this very moment. The leader of the deviants, the one they call Markus, is at the head of the march."

"Markus is alive!" Paul suddenly cried, before freezing as the dog snorted again.

"Oh thank fuck," Megan relaxed as the feed went to a distant shot of the walking protest.

Everyone tensed as the army held guns at them, and the march stopped in place. At the head, Markus began to speak.

"We are here to demand the immediate liberation of all androids detained in camps across the country. We are not leaving until our people are free."

They continued to walk, and Paul watched wide eyed as androids were starting to be shot. Megan let out a soft noise in the back of her throat and closed her eyes, the events less than a few hours ago still fresh in her mind. Oscar's face just tightened.

"Bastards," he cursed.

"It'll be a massacre," Paul muttered, not really wanting to hear those words himself.

In unison all the androids in the protest stopped moving, and sat down in a cross legged position. Once everyone was down, Markus challenged the army.

"Are you going to open fire on unarmed protestors?"

"Smart man," Oscar muttered.

"You'd think he'd been watching Alex," Megan added, and Paul shrugged.

"Maybe he has."

After a minute, the army held their fire and backed off, and everyone in the abandoned living room breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank God," Paul breathed, releasing the tension he hadn't realised was there.

The news feed cut to a reporter in a helicopter over the scene.

"Yes, Michael, we are less than a hundred metres away, and events are unfolding as we speak. We will continue to bring you live updates, Joss Douglas, Channel 16. Michael? Back to you."

The rest of the report faded into the background as Paul focused on the corner image live feed. The androids seemed to splitting up find material to make a barricade. At the bottom of the screen a banner rolled across reading 'Androids gathering outside Detroit Recall Center n5'

Paul clipped the radio from his belt and spoke into it.

"This is Beep Boop. Anyone there? Over."

"This is Captain Hardass reading you loud and clear Beep Boop. Over," Julia responded instantly.

"Ringo here. Over," Nathan called in as well.

"Everyone okay? Over," Paul asked.

"We're at my house," Julia intoned. "How's Me-Nervousness Incarnate? Over."

"Awake and alert. We're hunkered down in a house whose occupant seems to be missing. Ringo how about you? Over."

"We're okay," Allison came on instead. "Never mind that, did you see the news just now?! Over."

"Yes, we saw it," Paul confirmed, followed by Julia saying that her group had seen it too.

"We should go-" Allison started, but Julia quickly interjected.

"Are you crazy?! With that much military, the world watching-!"

"They're setting up a press barrier, we could protest there!" Allison shot back. "After Markus's comment about protestors they wouldn't dare shoot. Over."

"It's their moment, not ours," Ivy came on suddenly. "Who are we to highjack that? Over."

"We wouldn't be highjacking it!" Allison exclaimed. "We would be showing support."

"What, ten of us? Without signs?" Ivy responded.

"You don't need signs to protest. Over."

"What about Megan?" Julia was back, and had forgotten about codenames. "She is in no state to be sitting in the cold protesting!"

"She doesn't have to come-" there was crackle as the radio was suddenly wrested from Allison, and Lucas's voice suddenly came through.

"Beep Boop. What are your thoughts? Over."

Paul sat there staring at the black rectangle. What were his thoughts...?

Both sides had a good point. The androids need all the help they could get, although yes, this was their time. Was extra support really highjacking though?

For a moment he almost thought that the Thirium in his body had turned to ice as he considered something else. The only reason the army hadn't fired was because of the press. As Julia said, the world was watching. How long would it take for them to stop caring about that?

Paul turned his head to look at his own injury. The synthetic skin had covered it now, but blue blood still stained his shirt. He was obviously an android now. Going there, while noble, was fool hardy. He was asking to be shot.

"Go if you want," he decided over the radio. "I won't. Over."

"Are you sure?" Allison asked. "They are your people after all. Over."

"I've never met any of them," Paul responded. "The only way that they are my people is that they are synthetic rather than organic. I don't know them and going there is asking for me to be shot and scrapped. I'm staying here. Over."

"Alright," Allison sounded a little humbled by that speech. "I'll head over. Anyone else who wants to come, meet me behind the press barrier. Over and out."

There was silence for a minute before the distinctive sound of Ivy swearing. "I'll go, meet you there. Over."

"Rodger that Poison Oak," Nathan responded. "Bring a radio. Biker Chick left this one. I think Captain Hardass took the spares. Over."

"I did," Julia responded. "Good luck. Over and out."

Paul looked over at Oscar, still propped against the wall. "Are you going to go?"

"No," Oscar shook his head. "If whoever lives here comes back you'll need someone intimidating," a grin tugged at his lips. "You two are as intimidating as a pair of marshmallows."

"Thanks," Paul sighed as Megan laughed. "He was insulting you too you know," he informed Megan, who continued to giggle.

"I know I'm unthreatening. You might be threatening, if you're angry enough."

"I see..." Paul really had no way to respond to that and returned his attention to the news, which was showing a live feed of the androids building their barricade. They were moving with great speed and efficiency, easily erecting their barricade.

"How long do you think they can hold out?" Megan asked, and Paul felt something cold in his gut as he responded.

"Until the army loses patience and charges."

"That's a grim thought," Oscar interjected. "Surely knowing public opinion and seeing press would hold them back?"

"Who knows," Megan seemed to be sharing Paul's bleak opinion.

They watched anxiously, the two humans ignoring sleep for now. They watched as Markus went to go meet with the government official. They fully expected the army to open fire then, and they were surprised when they didn't. Markus returned to the barricade, and all hell broke loose.

Paul shot to his feet, cry of dismay clogging in his throat as the military threw grenades and attempted to storm the barricade. Innocent androids were being shot, and Markus was lost in the chaos. Megan got off the couch and stood next to Paul, right hand holding his left as he stared at the television screen.

Oscar also stood, but more or less stayed where he was as they watched the massacre.

Within a few minutes what remained of the protest was hemmed against a disused bus. Markus and a handful of androids remained with guns pointing at them from all sides.

Paul turned his head away, unable to watch.

"Hold on, just a little while longer..."

The sound was faint, but grew louder as the other androids joined in.

"Hold on, just a little while longer. Everything will be alright."

Paul risked a look as the soldiers lowered their weapons, and stared.

The news anchor interrupted and began to speak.

"We're interrupting this news bulletin to bring you the latest news live from Detroit. Joss?"

Joss turned out to be the man in the helicopter, and proceeded to tell everyone what they'd already seen.

"Yes, Michael. The army has just launched an attack on the barricade, despite the fact that the deviants were protesting peacefully."

The camera turned it's attention back to the protest, and the song continued.

"Fight on, just a little while longer. Everything will be alright. Everything will be alright. Sing on, just a little while longer, sing on, just a little longer. Sing on, just a little while longer. Everything will be alright."

Paul barely realised that he was moving, but suddenly he was hugging Megan, and what could only described be as tears were rolling down his face and soaking into her shirt and bandage.

He was happy, at least, that was one thing he was definitely feeling among other. Relief made itself known as Megan responded with a one armed hug. They were safe for now. The protest had gone well, and he hoped beyond hope that gunfire wouldn't sound. Not now. Please not now. Please don't this away from him.

Shots did not ring out, but he still couldn't bring himself to look at the screen. He wanted to live this moment. This glorious moment where the world saw androids as alive and he was with someone he deeply cared about.

The babble of journalists was being registered and recorded in his memory banks, but for now he didn't care to pay attention. He doubted it was over, but it was a massive victory.

Megan ran her free hand up and down his back, and she had an odd thought. At this point in a story, this would be when the two main protagonists would kiss. Especially if they were of opposite genders.

...Yeah, that wasn't going to happen.

* * *

This could be considered 'the end' I suppose. I have more chapters, I have probably ten more chapters, but this could an end if you so desired. Everything after this is the cherry on top.

I don't think Paul would leave to go to the protest, it's way too risky for him, so that won't be an option in the Flowchart.

The last line was also meant to be a big 'up yours' to the romance genre. I have deliberately given Megan and Paul good chemistry and made it clear that romance was never going to happen, despite the interactions. I can already tell some people are going to be pissed, and I don't care!

A quick update in terms of posting, I am leaving on another trip tomorrow, which will be a bigger deal than last time because the time zones will be radically different. I will still try and post, but I will mostly using hotel WiFi and be roughly 12 hours ahead of what I currently am (GMT), so when I do post, it might seem to be at odd times.

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) Ask Oscar if he'll sleep too.

(Paul) Be optimistic about the barricade.


	38. Chapter 38

**Mysterious Guest, who's house is this? You shall see...**

* * *

 **11.30PM Thursday 11** **th** **November 2038**

Paul pulled away, wiping his face clear with his hands. The tears had run what was left of his makeup and he left to find the bathroom so that he could clean himself up. The bathroom mirror was cluttered with post it notes, but he didn't dare move them.

He splashed water on his face and scrubbed with his hands, the eyeliner and foundation coming away. He left his hair as it was; an absolute mess. The mirror was too cluttered to do anything about that efficiently.

He left the bathroom and started down the hall, only to freeze in his tracks.

He could hear that a car was pulling up outside.

In less than a second all possible options appeared. He could get out the way he came in no problem. Megan was small enough to do the same with some help. Oscar was too big. There must be a back door.

He rushed to the living room, where Oscar turned to him with an alarmed expression. His mouth has half open to say something, but Paul beat him to it.

"Back door!" he hissed, helping Megan up. "We'll go window."

Oscar nodded and headed to the back off the house as Paul and Megan went to the kitchen. They had to be quick. The window was almost in direct line of sight of the door.

This was the moment the dog chose to wake up.

The dog blearily blinked awake and immediately clocked the strangers. It stood up and started barking, easily allowing Paul to see the tag, which read 'Sumo'.

"Shh, shhhhush," Paul tried to calm the dog, but it wasn't happy with the strangers in its house. "Easy Sumo."

"Down Sumo!" Megan interjected, halfway out of the window by this point. She was sitting on the sill, legs out in the freezing air. She could hear the owner of the house mumbling to himself as he walked up the path.

"Jeez, what's gotten Sumo all riled up?"

There was a jingle of keys and Megan jumped out of the first floor window, turning around to try and help Paul through. He was halfway through when the front door opened.

"What the fuck?!" the owner of the house cried, Megan couldn't see what he looked like. Paul was blocking her view.

"We're leaving!" she called out to him before pulling Paul through. The android landed with a splat in the snow, but was quickly up again.

He grabbed Megan by her good arm and they ran away from the house, scanning the area.

"Where's Oscar?" Megan asked, looking towards the back of the house.

"The back door might be locked. Stay here," Paul insisted, and before Megan could protest he let go and ran to the back of the house.

Megan huffed in irritation and followed him, going slowly. Any faster than a walking pace was going to jostle her arm.

Paul made it around the back and found that his initial thought was correct, the back door was locked. Oscar looked through the window, expression panicked as he turned back inside to face the no doubt furious house owner.

He turned to see Megan walking towards him, blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

"I told you to stay put!" Paul hissed, and Megan scowled.

"Yes, alone, in the cold, with one arm useless, with a revolution happening. Didn't sound like the safest idea."

Paul opened his mouth to retort when the back door suddenly flung open. A man in his rough fifties looked at them with lank grey hair and matching stubbly beard. He wore a thick winter overcoat speckled with snow and a pretty pissed off expression.

"Get in," was all he said, and Paul and Megan looked at each other. They could run at this point, but it would mean leaving Oscar behind.

They went inside.

They followed the man inside, listening to him grumble to himself. Oscar was back in the living room, being liberally sniffed by Sumo.

"Sumo!" the old man barked. "Leave him be."

The St Bernard enthusiastically greeted the old man before returning to his spot in the kitchen to go back to sleep. Out of the corner of his eye Paul noticed Megan looking wistfully at the dog. Before he could ask why the old man turned to them.

"Alright you three. What the fuck is going on here?" he stood with his arms folded, expecting an answer. Oscar, Megan and Paul looked at each other. How the hell were they going to properly explain this?

"I'm waitin'" the old man prompted. "Or how about I call the police for tresspassin'?"

"It's, a long story," Oscar elected himself to explain, and the old man snorted.

"I'd be surprised if it wasn't," he suddenly squinted at Megan's face, now that she was in the light. "Weren't you on the news?"

Megan had a suddenly deer in the headlights moment. "M-maybe?"

"What was it, something about an illegal protest?" the old man prompted.

"Something like that," Megan mumbled, finding the floor fascinating.

 **Can't even answer a simple question**

 _Not now!_

"Our apologies sir," Paul stepped up. "We just needed some shelter for a while. We will be more than happy to go on our way."

"Shelter, huh," the old man looked critically at all three of them. "So it's got nothing to with the fact that you're an android, and your wanted friend there looks like they have a bullet wound in their shoulder?"

Paul froze in place and remembered the Thirium stain on his shirt. Had that not dried yet?

With a sigh the old man reached into his pocket and pulled out a police badge, quickly explaining how he figured it all out so quickly. "Lieutenant Hank Anderson. And you are?"

"Oscar Mannings," Oscar provided before mouthing 'oh fuck' to Paul, who barely registered it.

Seeing Paul was still frozen Megan mumbled out. "Megan Carroll."

"P-Paul," Paul managed to get out, recovering himself. This was bad. Lieutenant Anderson had been assigned the deviant android case with the RK800, and here he was, a clearly deviant android.

"So, if I have this right," Anderson adjusted himself, standing up straighter. "You two are on the run. You for the pro android protest yesterday," he pointed to Megan, "and you for being a deviant," he pointed to Paul. He then turned to Oscar, "and you just got roped in?"

"We're friends," Oscar corrected, and Megan felt something in her heart soar and twinge at that. Friends? Really? They'd barely said a word to each other before tonight. Not that Oscar was much of a talker anyway. Neither was she.

Anderson nodded, looking at each of them in turn, clearly trying to figure out what to do now.

"Ah fuck," he sighed. "I ain't so heartless as ta make ya leave. But once the sun's up I want you lot out. Understand?"

"Completely Lieutenant," Paul confirmed. Anderson shook his head and mumbled about 'it being too long of day for this shit' and made his way to the bedroom.

The three of them looked at each other, relief and apprehension on their faces.

"So, we've still got a place for tonight," Oscar tried.

"Yes," Paul agreed, "but of all the houses, we had to get Lieutenant Anderson's?"

Megan snapped her fingers as she remembered. "Wasn't he the guy that Julia said was on deviant case?"

"With the RK800, yeah," Paul shuddered. Oscar frowned.

"I thought he had a name."

"Connor," Paul remembered, "but, whatever. I don't really want to think about it."

"Let's just sleep," Oscar suggested. "It's been a mad few days and we're all tired."

"Agreed," Paul nodded. "Megan, do you need painkillers?"

"I'm fine," she said, and Paul raised an eyebrow.

"Uh huh. That was a yes or no question," Paul was already going to the bathroom to look through the medicine cabinet.

"Paul, I'm fine," Megan insisted.

"And I'm the Queen of France."

Megan glared at him. "I hate you."

"Love you too," Paul shot a massive shit eating grin at her before going back to rummaging. "If you don't take painkillers you won't sleep."

"... I hate it when you're right."

"Go get a glass of water."

Megan flipped him the bird as she left, and he rolled his eyes.

"You're being childish!"

"I'm nineteen! I am a child!"

"If you two keep arguing like an old married couple I'm kicking you out now!" Anderson roared from the bedroom. Suitably cowed Megan went to the kitchen to get the glass of water.

* * *

Well, I did say last time that uploads might be sporadic. Basically my laptop did a weird and wouldn't connect to anything, we've figured out the problem now, so hopefully updates will continue as usual. Hopefully.

In terms of story, hey, it's Hank! They don't know he's on their side. I'm figuring that's roughly when he comes back from the CyberLife Tower after the shit show there. We'll get to see more of him, don't worry.

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) All go through back door. Oscar goes through the front. They all go through the front.

(Megan) Stay put.

(Paul) Run from Hank. (Oscar would be left behind)

(Paul) Full truth. Lie.


	39. Chapter 39

**11.58PM Thursday 11** **th** **November 2038**

A few minutes later, painkillers had been successfully taken and Megan was back on the couch.

"Are you sure you're okay over there?" she asked Oscar, who had returned to sitting against the wall. "I can budge up if you want."

"Sick and the injured get priority," Oscar waved off. "Besides I wouldn't fit on the couch."

Megan grumbled a little but lay on the couch. The tv was still on, although the sound had been turned down. It was still showing the feed from the protest as androids were released from the Recycling Centre. They looked a little creepy with just the bare white exterior Megan had to admit.

"Holy shit," Megan suddenly noticed something odd. The androids were on the move, and the camera panned over to show a massive group of identical androids, with one distinct android at the head of the column.

"What the...?" Paul stared while Oscar got up to get a better look.

Markus and the android at the head of the column met in the middle, and Paul squinted.

"What the fuck?" he could not believe what he was seeing.

"What?" Megan and Oscar asked. The resolution wasn't great, so clearly Paul had spotted something that they had not.

"That's the RK800-Connor!"

Megan blinked at the screen, squinting. It was difficult for her to tell, so she took Paul's word for it.

"So, this could go really well, or destroy the entire revolution," she summarised.

"Nah, Connor's good."

Everyone except Paul jumped and turned to see Lieutenant Anderson dressed in a loose shirt and boxers. Not a sight many would really want to see. The police detective had his arms folded as he nodded at the screen.

"He woke a bunch of 'em up in CyberLife Tower. He's not huntin' deviants anymore."

Everyone noticed Paul slump in relief, but no one mentioned it.

"So, is he a deviant now as well?" Paul asked uncertainly.

"Yup," Anderson responded, popping the 'p'.

This was when Paul's radio flared into life.

"This is Rainbow3. Anyone watching the news? Over."

Anderson raised an eyebrow as Paul answered.

"Beep Boop here. We just saw it. Over."

"Did you see who was at the front though?" Lucas asked.

"No, what the hell's going on?!" Ivy asked.

"The RK800-Connor, yes. We have confirmation that he's a deviant now. Over," Paul bristled as Anderson snorted with laughter at that.

"From who?" responded Lucas. "And I'm guessing you two haven't made it there yet? Over."

"...No," Ivy admitted. "Seems like there's no point. Heading back. Who's your informant? Over."

Anderson outright laughed. "Whatever, you can tell yer little Scooby Doo gang."

Paul did just that. "Lieutenant Hank Anderson. Over."

"Wait, what?!" Julia had clearly taken the radio off of Maggie. "How? Over."

"We, may have, broken into his house," Paul admitted, and Megan interjected while the talk button was still down.

"We didn't break anything! The window was broken when we got here!"

There was a pause from the radio.

"Great way to avoid suspicion there Nervousness Incarnate," you could almost hear Lucas rolling his eyes. "Fuck we'll deal with this in the morning. If he's still there ask him about him AAA Battery, provided there isn't a gun to your head."

"You think Nervousness Incarnate would put up with that after earlier?" Paul responded wryly.

"Five feet of fury," Ivy snickered.

"She can bite his kneecaps," Maggie joined in, and Megan leaned to snatch the radio from Paul.

"I hate you guys."

"Guys enough," Julia came back on. "It's midnight, let's call it a day already. We all got somewhere to sleep? Over."

"Yep. Over." Megan responded, and was greeted by another affirmative from Lucas's group.

"Let's see if we can meet soon. Over and out," Julia ended the conversation and Megan handed the radio back to Paul.

"So, what are you guys, exactly?" Anderson asked. "Some kind of android rights group?"

"That is exactly what we are," Oscar rumbled.

"Huh. Well good for you," Anderson huffed. "And who the fuck is AAA Battery?"

"Alex, our, I suppose leader," Paul thought. "They and Allison could be joint leaders I suppose, along with Julia."

"Right, and I assume this Alex got arrested?"

"Yes," Paul confirmed. "Short green hair, bright clothing, general androgynous appearance."

"I haven't seen 'em," Anderson shrugged. "Now fer the love of God, go to sleep!"

The detective stormed off and Oscar switched off the tv. Megan got settled on the couch, making sure to stay on her back or right side. Oscar slumped against the wall and drew his knees up to rest his head on them. Paul stood in place for a second before switching off the lights.

He stood in the dark, watching them fall asleep. He could go into stasis he supposed, although he wanted to stay alert. They weren't out of the woods yet.

Paul stood vigil all night, watching the snow fall outside the window.

 **07.30AM Friday 12** **th** **November 2038**

As dawn began to break he shook Megan and Oscar awake. Oscar was awake almost instantly, although Megan groaned and mumbled something about 'five more minutes'.

Without wasting another second he picked her up, and she was clearly tired as she only half heartedly objected.

Oscar opened the door and they stepped out in the fresh morning. Oscar swore and rubbed his hands together before stuffing them into his pockets. Megan burrowed deeper into the blanket, taking full advantage of her position to avoid the cold at all costs. Paul noticed the cold, but overall it didn't bother him.

"So, where to?" Oscar asked.

Paul paused, sifting through the options. They didn't know where Lucas and Nathan were. Allison was either still wandering towards the android camp or had given up and headed back. Alex of course was at the police station. That left Julia's group, who were at her house.

"Do you know where Julia lives?" he asked Oscar, who shook his head. "Megan?"

"No idea," she mumbled. "I don't think it's that far from Alex's."

"That doesn't help," Paul sighed.

"We couldn't have discussed this in the warm?" Oscar asked, stamping his feet to make sure that they didn't get too cold.

"I'd rather not test the Lieutenant's patience."

"So, we have no idea where to go?" Oscar asked, Paul reluctantly nodded. "What about going to the androids?"

"We don't know receptive they are to humans right now," Paul shot down.

"How about we go to a mall or something?" Oscar suggested. "We're freezing out here!"

"It will give us a temporary goal if nothing else." Paul nodded, recalling where the nearest mall would be. It was a bit of a hike, given that this was a residential district, but it was doable.

As the sun rose higher Paul made sure Megan started walking.

"It's cold!" she protested.

"You have a blanket!" Oscar snapped in a rare show of temper. "What have you got to complain about?"

"Lack of functionality in my left arm!"

"Both of you, enough!" Paul barked, restoring order. "Nothing about this is great. Let's just get somewhere warm and plan from there."

Megan and Oscar glared at each other for second before following the android. Given that dawn was pretty much half seven, they expected businesses to be opening. Instead, the streets of Detroit were full of people getting into cars with large suitcases and driving off.

"What the hell is going on?" Megan asked, and Paul flagged down a nearby couple trying to shove a suitcase into the back of their car.

"Hello, sorry to bother you," he started, and the one shoving the suitcase in grunted to acknowledge that he was there. Their partner on the other hand, was a bit more amicable.

"What's up?" they asked.

"Er, we've been out of the loop. Where is everyone going?"

"Detroit is being officially evacuated," the gentlemen helpfully informed. "Given the androids taking the city the military have retreated and are basically letting them have Detroit."

"I see. Thank you very much," Paul dipped his head in thanks.

"No problem, if you and your guys need a ride out of Detroit then I'm sure there's room for you."

Paul looked at their small Sedan and Oscar's bulk. No contest.

"Thank you for the offer, but we'll be fine. Thank you."

Paul went back to the other two and relayed the news.

"The whole city?" Megan asked, incredulous.

"Sounds like it. I'll call the others," Paul reached for the radio and walked as he talked. Most people were worrying more about themselves than some guy with a radio.

"This is Beep Boop. Anybody else know about the evacuation order? Over."

"Reading you Beep Boop," Julia was online. "It was on the news this morning and all over the paper. My parents are packing up, but I'm going to stay here. Over."

"I thought these orders were mandatory. Over."

"We all know that the androids pose no threat. Besides, half of Detroit ignored a tornado evacuation once, this is nothing in comparison. Over."

"Is everyone staying? Over," Paul posed the question.

"Ringo's in student accommodation, and they're doing checks to make sure students are gone," informed Lucas. "We're going to move to my apartment."

"Poison Oak and Rainbow3 will stay with me," Julia informed.

"Any sign of Biker Chick?" Paul asked, and a bleary voice answered.

"Yes, I made it back an hour ago," Allison responded, voice thick with exhaustion. "I didn't make it to the protest in the end. It would have been all over anyway."

"Alright. Get some sleep and my group will work some things out. Over and out," Paul clipped the radio back to his belt. Oscar and Megan had both overheard.

"I'm in student accommodation," Oscar admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well then," Megan took a deep breath. "Looks like we'll go to mine then."

"Megan, your apartment is tiny," Paul reminded.

"It's better than nothing," Megan declared, and Paul could just detect a nervous habit under the blanket. Even with a sling, she was finding a way to pick at her sleeve.

"It'll be a long walk," Paul added. "It took us several hours on the way to Alex's."

"Well, we won't be dodging the military this time," Megan responded with some optimism, and Paul had to agree.

They made it to Megan's apartment building without any issue. All military personnel had been withdrawn and most people were leaving the city like it was a sinking ship.

People were still exiting the building when they made it there, but few people were taking the stairs. So they didn't have to push through a crowd of people to get to Megan's floor.

* * *

I'm online! Starting tomorrow I'm going to in one place until after New Year, so hopefully updates will be more reliable. I know not much has changed your guys end, but I've been having issues connecting to the internet on my laptop the entire damn time! Thankfully, it should ease over soon, we're almost at the end after all.

So, we're done with Hank Anderson for the time being, his appearance short but sweet, although we haven't seen the last of him yet. Honestly he probably would have let them stay a bit longer but Paul didn't want to risk anything. Since none of them have any idea of the stuff that happened in Connor's story they have little reason to actually trust Hank.

Also, imagine being in Hank's position, having a pair of college students and an android hiding your house and using cumbersome code names and being all serious about it, that would be pretty funny in his position.

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) Ask Hank how he knows Connor is okay.

(Megan) Don't interject.

(Paul) Suggest going to Megans. Suggest Alex's. Suggest hiding.

(Paul) Agree with Oscar about going to the androids.

(Paul) Chastise Megan. Tell of Oscar.(Paul) Ask the people dragging a suitcase from their house. Pick up abandoned news tablet to read.


	40. Chapter 40

**09.45AM Friday 12** **th** **November 2038**

She unlocked the door and let the boys in. It felt weird to back. The whole world had changed since she and Paul had left, and yet the apartment was still the same as they'd left it.

"Alright," Megan set about introducing the place to Oscar. "Bathroom's there, kitchen there. That door there is my bedroom and I'd appreciate it if you didn't go in there."

As she did this Paul went to check the taps and lights. The lights flickered on dimly but the tap made a horrible gurgling sound with no water appearing.

"We're on generator power. Great," Megan sighed. "We'll just have to deal with it."

She turned her attention to the landline phone and sighed, seeing that it was blinking with several messages. She went over to play them over one by one.

 _"Megan,"_ it was her mother. _"Things sound like they're getting pretty dangerous in Detroit. Stay safe okay? Call me back."_

The next one was also from her mom, and the next, and the next. Each one becoming more and more hysterical.

The second to last one was from her brother, saying that he'd picked up movement in his college with Android Allies and was hoping to keep protesting and harbouring androids as best he could.

The final one was actually from the Beckwiths.

 _"Megan dear, we hope you get this. We made it to my sister's and Anita is safe. Don't you worry. You and Paul take care of each other now. Okay? Stay safe."_

With a long sigh and a bit of preparation as the boys puttered around in the background, Megan called her parents.

 _"Megan Violet Carroll!"_ her mom screamed down the phone, making her pull the receiver away from her ear. _"Do you have any idea how worried we've been?!"_

"I can probably guess," Megan spoke before she thought, and quickly realised that now was not the time for a smart answer.

 _"We've been worried sick! Especially with all the phones down. What the hell were you thinking, protesting illegally?! I never thought you'd be one to break the law! We're booking a flight for you to come home right now!"_

Megan felt sick, but did something that she felt like she needed to. "You don't need to do that."

 _"Yes I do. And I know airports make you anxious sweetheart but we'll put that in the extra requirements and we can have someone meet you."_

"No. You really don't have to. I, I don't want you to."

 _"Megan? What are you saying?"_

"I'm staying in Detroit."

 _"No you most certainly are not! The entire city's a warzone! Buildings destroyed, people fleeing in terror-"_

Megan interrupted her mother for the first time in many years. "Well I'm looking out of the window right now and not a single building has been damaged and people are leaving in an orderly fashion."

 _"What about these androids-?!"_

"They haven't hurt anyone. Not a single human life was lost in this entire revolution. Detroit is safe."

 _"Young lady, in case you haven't realised there's an evacuation order!"_

"I've broken one law. I'm happy breaking another. See you later mom."

 _"Megan! Don't you dare-!"_

Megan hung up the phone and took a deep breath to steady herself. Her stomach roiled in protest and she felt her legs wobble, but overall, she was okay.

Before her mom could call her back, she called her brother.

"Hey James," she said after he'd picked up.

 _"Hi Megs, still in Detroit?"_

"Yep, still on campus?"

 _"Just about. I hid under the bed when security came round. They don't know I'm here."_

"Cool, I'm guessing mom demanded that you come home?"

 _"Oh yeah. I shut her down though. You?"_

"Same here. She was not happy. How's AA your end?"

 _"Pretty good. Some guys had to go home but most of us are still here. What about you? I saw you on the news."_

"Yeah. Most of us are still here. Alex was arrested. I don't know what we're going to do about that," the pain killers had worn off about an hour ago, and she shifted her shoulder uncomfortably, wincing audibly.

 _"You okay?"_ James asked and Megan couldn't bring herself to lie.

"Had a run in with the military for the protest and harbouring an illegal android. I, I got shot."

 _"What?! Shouldn't you be in hospital?!"_

"What hospital? They're all closed," Megan rebuked. "One of the guys knows first aid and can sew. I'm stitched up pretty nicely."

 _"Good, that's good. Don't do anything too reckless, okay?"_

"You're telling _me_ not to be reckless?"

 _"Well, given what you've just told me..."_

"True true," Megan agreed. "How are you doing anyway?"

 _"Me? I'm fine. Not shot anyway."_

"I mean, mentally. Are you okay? I know this might not be a good time to talk, but..."

 _"...it's okay. I've got other things to focus on. I'll figure it out when everything dies down okay?"_

"James," Megan warned, feeling big sister mode kicking in.

 _"I'm fine. College was a bit of a shock, that was all. I'm fine."_

"Alright," Megan sighed, not believing him but too tired to push. "I'll call you later, okay?"

 _"Sure. Love you."_

"Love you too." Megan hung up, that phone having been a lot better than with her mom. Final call was to the Beckwiths. It went to voicemail, so Megan left a message.

"Hey, just letting you know that I'm okay. Me and Paul are okay and I'm glad to hear Anita's good. Hope you three stay safe. Don't worry about calling back. I have a feeling that things might get a bit busy. Bye."

Megan hung up and turned to face the rest of the apartment. Paul had moved some of his stuff from the couch so that Oscar could sit down, and the android was now pottering around the kitchen.

"Paul, what are you doing?" Megan asked.

"Making breakfast," he replied, checking bread, bacon and eggs. They seemed to satisfy him and he got to work.

"Need help?" Megan asked, already knowing the answer.

"How about you read a book?" Paul suggested. "I'll ask Oscar if I need help."

Megan sighed, nodded and did as he suggested, sitting in her desk chair. It felt so good to sit there again.

There was silence for a while before Oscar broke it.

"So, now what?" he asked. "We're just going to hole out here?"

"For the time being," Paul replied as bacon sizzled. "We will need to do a supply run sooner or later, and deal with Alex. We should have gotten Lieutenant Anderson's phone number, then we could have gotten him to get them out."

"Hindsight is 20/20," Megan commented, nose deep in her book.

Oscar shifted uncomfortably. He wanted to do something, but all he could think of was watching tv, and they were on limited power.

"Oscar," Paul started, sensing his restlessness. "I would suggest calling your parents."

Oscar nodded, and got up to do just that.

The whole thing was very calm, very domestic. Almost a complete contrast to the last few days. If you ignored the hand guns the boys had placed on the coffee table.

Morning soon past into afternoon, and everyone was startled by a knock at the door.

 **2PM Friday 12** **th** **November 2038**

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at each other. Paul grabbed and cocked a gun before approaching the door and looking through the fish eye hole.

"Lieutenant Anderson?" he opened the door to reveal the titular detective.

"Finally!" he stated. "I was starting to wonder if you were even in."

"What are you doing here?" Paul asked, angling himself so that he couldn't see into the apartment. Or the gun he was holding.

"Thought ya might want to know about your friend. They got released today, on account of bigger fish to fry."

"Okay, thank you for that information," Paul responded. "It seems like you went to an awful lot of trouble for this detective."

"Yeah, ya got me. That ain't the only reason I'm here," Anderson rocked back and forth on his heels. "Mind if I come in? It's freezing in this corridor."

Paul looked his shoulder at Megan, who nodded reluctantly. He stepped back to let in the detective.

"Damn tiny place you got here," he commented, Paul closing the door behind him.

"It was designed for one person," Megan's snark was there, but was muted in the presence of a near stranger.

"I can tell," Anderson continued to rock on his heels. "Anyway, you guys seem to be the main pro android group in the city right now, huh?"

"I, guess," Oscar responded with a shrug. "No one else seems to be organised."

"Exactly, and ya say this Alex is yer leader?"

"More or less," Paul responded cautiously, wondering where this was going.

"Look, I know Connor, and I know he's gotten in good with the deviants, so I figured that I could talk to 'im and see if we could set up a meeting between your guys and Markus."

Megan made a noise that sounded like a cat coughing up a hair ball, and Oscar's mouth fell open.

"Are you certain about this detective?" Paul asked, the only one able to regain his cognitive faculties.

"Not really, but I can try. Besides, it would be good for them to meet pro android folks who aren't politicians. Plus, you can be with other androids if ya want," he aimed that last part at Paul, who narrowed his eyes.

"I'm not sure that I do."

"Eh, whatever," Anderson shrugged. "You do you. I'm just putting the offer out there. I didn't get a chance to tell yer friend, and you're the only other guys I know."

"We will pass it on," Paul assured.

"Great! Er, here's my phone number, just in case," since Paul was closest he handed it to him, and Paul copied down Megan's landline and cell phone number.

"Alright," Anderson made his way back towards the door. "I'll, er, be in touch."

"Thank you Lieutenant," Paul responded, since no one else seemed to feel like talking.

"Call me Hank. This is unofficial after all," the detective attempted a smile, and seemed to fall a little flat. "Be seein' ya," with that he left.

A few seconds after the door fell shut Megan stared at Paul.

"...Did that just happen?"

"Yes. I do believe that it did."

"Fuck."

"Indeed."

* * *

Well, I guess Hank showed up sooner than I remembered.

I'm admittedly not too fond of where the story goes from here. It seems like a natural continuation to me, but it feels, I don't know, too convenient. At the same time, I don't know how to make it better without dragging it out, so I've left it as is.

Other Options Flowchart

(Megan) Be blunt. Be sincere. Be sarcastic to her mother's worries.

(Megan) Be firm. Be hesitant. Be rude with her mother.

(Megan) Lie to James about the injury

(Megan) Press James about his mental health.

(Paul) Leave the gun.


	41. Chapter 41

**10.03AM Monday 15** **th** **November 2038**

A few days later and Paul and Megan were preparing to do something that they never would have guessed they would do. They were getting ready to meet Markus.

They weren't the only ones; Alex, Allison, Ivy and Julia were coming as well. Paul had been invited for obvious reasons, Megan and Ivy because of the failed protest where Alex got arrested.

Paul adjusted the buttons on his orange polo shirt and straightened the collar, even though it was perfectly fine. His slacks had been ironed to obsessive perfection and he'd even shined his smart shoes.

He really wanted to check his hair, but the only mirror was in the bathroom, and Megan was currently inside. She had been for several minutes and Paul was worried. However, a careful listen revealed something he wasn't expecting.

Megan was singing.

Softly, to herself. Her voice wasn't amazing, but it was pleasant enough, as it had a sweet, tinkling quality to it. He wasn't sure if he'd heard her sing before, but it seemed like it was an extra bolster of courage.

"Fight on, just a little while longer," she sang, and Paul felt what would have been his heart twist a little. That song had really struck a chord with Megan; while he'd never heard her sing it, she was often humming it.

He carefully waited until the verse was over before knocking gently.

"Is everything okay in there?" he asked.

"Y-yeah," Megan stammered back. "I'll be out in a sec."

She was indeed out quickly. Her red hair had been brushed and hung loose over her shoulders. She had found a button up shirt somewhere and was wearing that with a fresh pair of jeans and sneakers. He already knew all of that though, as her arm was still in a sling and she'd needed help getting dressed.

The button up shirt had the left arm hanging uselessly and was more or less hanging open, showing the t shirt they'd managed to get on underneath.

She looked Paul up and down for second. "You really went smart for this huh?"

"It's not a bad idea to make a good first impression," Paul shifted awkwardly. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to check my hair."

"Your hair's fine," Megan insisted, but stepped aside to let him in.

"It is not fine!" Paul squawked. "It's a bird's nest!"

Megan looked at Paul's hair, it was a little rumpled and mussed, but not bad. "Your hair was worse than that a few days ago."

"We're not on the run anymore. I no longer have an excuse for a dishevelled appearance."

"I thought you liked the t shirt and jeans look."

"I don't mind it, but I prefer this."

"Okay," Megan stepped away to let him finish, suddenly feeling self conscious. Was she dressed too casually? She was going to meet a resistance leader, could she really do that with a shirt hanging open?

Oscar had been watching the two with a slight grin. He hadn't been able to go back to student accommodation and Alex was trying to convince their parents to let more people stay over, so he was still at Megan's.

"You're both worrying over nothing," Oscar put in his thoughts. "I don't think he'll care."

"Do you know that?" she asked, awkwardly putting her coat and slipped her feet in her boots.

"No, but it's only been a few days. It'll be fine,"

Megan nodded distractedly, and threw Paul his coat as he left the bathroom.

"I just sorted out my hair!" he cried as he caught it.

"It would get messed up outside anyway," Megan defended. "I hear the trains are still running, so better go catch one while we can."

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Paul insisted, and the pair left the apartment.

Oscar grinned to himself. "Those two are adorable."

* * *

 **10.43AM Monday 15** **th** **November 2038**

The original Jericho had been an abandoned freighter, and while communication was still in the early stages they figured it was best to go back to somewhere familiar.

They met Alex, Allison, Julia and Ivy on the train, and were met by Connor at the station.

Paul instantly spotted him and stiffed. He almost stopped walking, but managed not to stop completely. Megan made sure to stay close as they approached the RK800.

"Hey!" Alex grinned as they spotted him and strode right up to him. "You must be Connor!"

Megan wondered how on Earth they did it. If she tried that she would probably have an anxiety induced breakdown.

"Greetings Miss Briar," Connor started, and Alex's grin faltered for a second.

"Just call me Alex, but if you have to use a title, I prefer Zer."

"Gender neutral, my apologies," Connor rectified and he turned to the rest of the group. "I'm glad you could all make it."

"Well, we're not going to get an invitation like this again," Allison shrugged in calm nonchalance.

Connor took note of Paul's stiff stance. "You are no danger here Paul. I don't hunt deviants anymore," he assured, and Paul nodded stiffly.

"I know. It'll just, er," he suddenly had no idea where to look. "Just take a while to properly remember that."

Connor tilted his head to one side slightly, LED whirring. He was no longer wearing the CyberLife uniform, even if he still was wearing a suit. Megan found it odd that he kept the LED though.

"I see. Let's go to New Jericho then," Connor turned smartly on his heel and began to walk at a measured pace that was easy to keep up with.

They walked through the near empty streets. A few people were milling about, but not many. They took a winding route through the city before arriving at the docks. Paul had noticed a series of similar images on the way, but they left them behind very early on.

The docks were humming with activity, androids milling about with odd bits of material, bio-components and seemingly random things. Hobbies most likely, to keep them occupied.

Most of the androids looked like they were the male version of the AP700, and Paul felt himself stiffen further. More reminders of what started all of this.

"You okay?" Megan asked, although clearly not okay herself. She had not strayed far from him and her eyes were darting around constantly.

"Just thinking," he said, "if the Beckwith's had never decided to give me away, would be I standing here right now?"

"Unlikely," Megan thought. "You never know though."

"True," Paul decided.

Connor led them through the various androids milling about, and Megan and Paul found themselves gravitating towards each other. Megan because it was a lot of people who were staring, and Paul because he'd never seen so many androids in one place before. They were both freaked out.

Alex walked through like it was nothing, grinning and nodding hello to everyone they passed. Megan wondered if that was how they coped with nerves. Allison looked cool and collected, although seemed to unconsciously draw her leather jacket tighter around herself. Ivy was also rather calm, not as overly friendly as Alex, but still nodding hello and smiling a little.

Julia looked nervous as well, and moved towards Alex, as though their confidence was infectious.

Inside the warehouse was a series of flaming barrels and brightly coloured throws, in an attempt to make the place look homely. There was a curtained off section where it looked like androids were being repaired, and generally androids were milling around and talking.

Most talk faded as the newcomers walked in, and most stopped to stare. Worse were the whispers. Most were curious. Some were aggressive.

Megan's right hand found Paul's left and both squeezed, much to the other's surprise. They looked at each other in the face and smiled nervously. Neither were happy, but they could do this.

Markus had clearly decided to set this meeting in one of the old offices of the warehouse, as they went up some sturdy metal steps to a box room. Inside was the heterochromatic leader of the revolution, flanked by a woman with strawberry blonde hair trapped under a beanie and a figure that was familiar to all the humans.

Alex squinted at him first, coming to the logical conclusion of who this was.

"Professor!" they cried, grinning a genuine smile as they approached. Ivy and Megan agreed that this could only be Josh, a lecturer android who took them last year, and had been attacked by drunk students early this semester.

Josh frowned at Alex for a moment. "Alex Briar? You remember me?"

"Of course!" Android Allies reached the same level as the Jericho leaders. The female android looked pissed at being overlooked, while Markus looked on curiously. "You were the best lecturer we had!"

Ivy nodded in agreement." Yeah, you could always hold a hall, and I usually looked forward to your lectures," Ivy side eyed Megan, knowing they shared some subjects. However, Megan had found the floor fascinating and was picking at her shirt sleeve.

"I wasn't actually in many lectures, so I couldn't say," she mumbled. None of the humans heard her, but Josh did.

"That's alright. I remember you," Josh smiled, and Megan smiled back under her fringe.

"Anyway," Markus brought things back around. "I'm Markus, this is North," he gestured the woman, who nodded tightly, "and you appear to have met Josh."

"Yes," Alex's smile faltered as they looked back at Josh. "I can only apologise on the behalf of the student body. Those who attacked you were expelled and fined."

"For destruction of college property?" Josh accurately guessed.

"Yeah," Alex responded awkwardly." Not great, but something?"

North made a general irritated, disapproving noise and Megan managed not to jump out of her skin.

"Shall we get on then?" Markus asked. "I know of you Alex, and I assume this is everyone else?"

"Everyone you asked for, yeah," Alex responded. "The leather jacket is Allison, this ball of sunshine is Julia, the walking pansexual flag is Ivy, the nervous wreck is Megan and the only one with any decorum is, of course, Paul."

Paul cleared his throat and adjusted his collar before nodding.

"A pleasure," Markus smiled the smile of someone who had to keep everyone pacified. A little fake, somewhat strained but overall meaning well. "Let's have this meeting then. Connor, would you like to sit in?"

"If you don't mind," Connor smiled and Markus ducked back into the old office. Everyone else did an odd jostle to follow him, the humans making way for the androids and Paul making sure Megan actually went inside.

* * *

Yeah, so remember back in Chapter 4 when I mention an android that had been attacked by drunk students? Here we go! Full circle! Our gang meets the Jericho crew, minus Simon, because based of Jacksepticeye's run, wherein Simon died. North is generally annoyed about all of this, but the argument has all occurred off screen, so she just has to put up with the humans.

Alex using 'Zer' I'm a bit nervous about this, I have seen it used as a gender neutral title, but the more common version seems to be 'Xer'. I think Alex would prefer the former, but I am no expert on this matter so if anyone has anything to say on that I will gladly listen and correct if necessary.

In other news, Merry Christmas! If you don't celebrate Christmas then I wish you general good cheer and hope that it has been a good year for you!

Other Options Flowchart:

(Megan) Agree that his hair is mess.

(Megan) Openly reassure Paul.


	42. Chapter 42

**11PM Monday 15** **th** **November 2038**

The small space didn't actually have that many chairs. Allison didn't give a damn and sat down in one, while the rest of the humans either felt too awkward or just decided not to bother.

"Okay, er," for once Alex sounded a little unsure. "Megan has a lot of the numbers written down, and is usually our note taker. Megan, are you..." Alex trailed off as they realised that Megan had already made herself comfortable. She sat propped against the wall using her knees as a table. Her sling was tucked against her chest and she scribbled out a title with her right hand. "... Are you good to go?"

Megan clicked the pen a couple of times and nodded, sending a thumbs up to the group around the pen. All without looking up.

Alex looked at Paul for a second, who nodded and shrugged. This wasn't exactly surprising.

"Ooookay," Alex turned back to the main group. "What would you like to start with?"

"We've been out of the loop for a few days," Markus admitted, "can you tell us about the outside world?"

"Yeah, President Warren's been hiding behind Congress as they try and figure things out. Not much has happened yet, although there has been word of an anti android protest being planned in Washington next week."

"We're so crashing it," Allison smirked.

"Do you have the numbers for that?" Markus asked, concerned. "Connor told me there was only a few of you."

"Megan, numbers?" Alex prompted, and Megan complied, staring resolutely at her pad of paper.

"Several thousand people responded to the anti android post across the country, which isn't that many really if we compare to the total US population. Currently Android Allies has three chapters. Detroit has ten, California has ninety and thirty in Alabama. We've gathered some in the Phoenix and general Arizona area, but no official count yet. There's some international support from Europe, but they have so far been silent."

"So, not enough to crash a protest," Markus summarised.

"We can counter protest," Ivy suggested. "We just need to get it online and spread the word."

"And you think that'll work?" North asked, part curious, part incredulous.

"Never know until we try," Alex responded. "Plus, we usually get good turnouts from random people walking by."

"This protest wouldn't happen to be scheduled for when we're supposed to send an emissary to the White House?" Markus asked.

"No idea, when are you going?"

"In a few days time."

"Okay, the protest isn't until next week. Guess that isn't public knowledge."

"Apparently not," Markus shifted for a second. "I was hoping to ask about a potential partnership between our two groups. I hadn't expected you to all be, so young."

"If it helps, Julia isn't in school anymore."

"Noted," Markus filed that away.

"I don't know," Julia carefully opposed. "My uncle's a Detroit Police Captain, it might reflect badly on him."

"Nothing is set in stone," Markus assured. "That's what this meeting is for."

They all continued to talk, and Megan continued to take notes. After some debate, it was decided that Alex would be the more public face of Android Allies, as they could handle attention better. Everyone else was welcome at Jericho and to fill in if need be. Megan would continue her role as note taker, even if it wasn't entirely necessary, it was good for both sides to have a copy of events.

"Paul," Markus came to him. "How would you feel being a go between with our two groups?"

Paul froze in place and Megan glanced at him. He wasn't happy, in fact, he looked close to panicking.

"Ride the shitstorm," she mumbled, intending for only Paul to hear. With her pen she began to tap a steady rhythm and Paul began to calm down. None of this had gone unmissed by North and Connor, both of whom were looking at Paul and Megan. Connor had an expression of confusion initially before it cleared, and North looked suspicious.

"I, I suppose that makes sense," Paul unfroze. "I am the only android in the Detroit chapter and would I be correct in assuming that everyone downstairs would be more comfortable with an android?"

"You would be," Markus agreed.

"I see, then I should accept."

"We're not forcing you," Josh added. "If you really don't want to do it, then that's fine."

"No, it makes sense for me to do it."

"Very well," Markus logged that away faster than Megan could write it. "I think this concludes most of what I wanted to talk about with you today."

"Cool!" Allison stood up. "Anything else you need from us?"

"I would like to speak with Paul alone," Markus stated, and Paul instantly looked at Megan, who had frozen for a split second before continuing to pack up. Without a word he held out his hand to help her up, and she took it.

"Thanks," she murmured, still not looking at the other assembled androids.

"You okay with that Paul?" Alex asked, not sure if Paul had been paying attention.

"Yes, I was just helping the injured to their feet."

"My legs work just fine," Megan muttered.

"Then why did you accept my help?"

Megan mock scowled at him, both understanding that other side was messing around. "I'll see you outside you big goof."

"Don't wait up," Paul said, pausing at a soft squeal emanating from Alex. "Do you have to ship right now?"

"I ship all the time," Alex had their hands clasped together in glee. "Anyway, let's wait outside guys," Alex waved everyone out and closed the door behind them. They all took seats at various heights on the stairs, Megan being closest to the door.

Inside North turned to Paul.

"So, what is your deal with these humans?" she asked.

"Deal?" Paul was confused. "There's no deal."

"Then why do you stay with them?"

"What North means," Markus interrupted. "Is that you're clearly a deviant, and have no reason to tie yourself to humans, but you still do."

"And you want to know why," Paul finished, falling into thought. "It is difficult to explain," it wasn't really, but he wasn't sure if he could properly put it into words.

"Please try," Markus prompted.

"I'm only really here because of Megan. We, understand each other, support each other. She needs me, and I need her."

North didn't look convinced. "What's she got on you?"

"That I'm scared of dogs," Paul smirked to make it clear that was a joke.

"So, you stay together out of mutual respect and need?" Markus tried to sum up.

"More or less. I'll admit it is a little one sided, but Megan is the reason I'm a deviant."

"What did she do to you?" North asked.

"It's more what she nearly did to herself. After a period of decent mental health she began to spiral rapidly and turned to self harm. I panicked and stopped her, afraid that she might take her own life."

"You still don't owe her anything," North retorted. "If anything, she owes you!"

Paul was started to get annoyed by her. "Did you see that her left arm was in a sling?"

"Yes, what does that-?"

"That's from a gunshot wound at point blank range. Originally meant for me," Paul was glaring at North now. "She took a bullet for me, and you can be damn sure that I would do the same."

North was out of retorts now, and stepped back.

"I think that sums everything I wanted to ask you," Markus admitted. "Except for one thing. How would you feel about coming to live with Jericho? With us?"

The question threw Paul for a second, even though it was a fairly logical one. He was an android in Detroit, makes sense for him to be here, and he could communicate with Android Allies remotely. Despite the logic, he felt an emotional response. A strong, negative one; one that almost hurt.

"I, I don't think so," Paul shook his head. "Thank you for the offer, but I don't that would work for me."

"She's not forcing you to stay, is she?" North asked, and Paul's face darkened.

"Megan has never _made_ me do anything," he growled.

"That's enough," Markus stepped in before things got out of hand. "Thank you Paul. Would you mind sending in Megan? I'd like to talk to her too."

"Fine," Paul turned and left, simmering with anger.

He let the door fall shut behind him and joined Android Allies on the stairs. Megan was the first over to sit next to him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, and Paul shook his head. "How about talking through the emotion?"

"I know what I'm feeling," Paul snapped, and instantly regretted it, Megan was trying to help. "Sorry. North just pisses me off."

"That's impressive," Megan smirked.

"Markus wants to talk to you. Just you," he added when Alex started to stand up.

"Me? Why?" Megan asked, more than a little apprehensive at the idea.

"I forgot to ask," Paul sighed. "Head in. I'll be fine."

"You sure?" she asked, and when Paul nodded she stood up. She walked hesitantly towards the door, and took a step back as Josh, North and Connor exited. She didn't pay them any thought, and thankfully they left the door ajar.

"Come in," Markus prompted, and Megan nudged the door open wide enough for her to slip in, and shut it behind her.

* * *

So, basically, Paul has to convince the Jericho crew that he and Megan are cool and there's nothing dodgy going on. And Megan's being anti social. I saw a post on tumblr about introverted characters remaining that way because it's not a thing to 'overcome', and my mind immediately went to the bit where she was getting ready to make notes!

You might be able to tell, but I'm not a big fan of North. I appreciate that you need someone to advocate the violent option and her backstory puts her in the perfect position for it. I just hate the forced romance between her and Markus. At best it's forced, at worst (aka when you go completely pacifist) it's completely out of left field and makes no sense. I understand that having multiple romance options was too much for the development team to handle, but surely there could have been an option for Markus to not be romantically involved with North? Sorry, it drives me up the wall...

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) Decline Markus's offer

(Paul) Be serious to North's probing. Be annoyed.

(Paul) Remain calm. Start shouting


	43. Chapter 43

Two reviews to answer! First 'Hey'. I'm afraid that I don't entirely follow the first part. As for North, it's cool that you like her. I don't, but we don't need to all agree. The world would be dull if we did.

Next 'AVERYEXCITEDACE' I'm glad you're happy I made Megan ace (and Alex, and Nathan, although I think Nathan's more aro, anyway...) as a fellow ace I feel your pain, and it was one of the reasons I wrote this. Hopefully I'll remember to go more into detail about that when the epilogue goes up. Thank you for thinking I'm good writer, but, cool person? I must disagree, you must be confusing me with someone else XD

On to the chapter

* * *

 **12PM Monday 15** **th** **November 2038**

Markus was now sitting on one of the few chairs in the room, and gestured for her to sit in the one opposite. She obliged, but didn't look at him, still picking at her sleeve through her sling.

"I know you're nervous," he started, "but this is just a talk. I just wanted to ask a few things."

Megan nodded but still didn't say anything. It was clear to Markus that he might not get a verbal answer to all of his questions.

"You and Paul are close, huh?" he started, and Megan nodded, smiling a little. "How close would you say?"

Megan considered a snarky response relating to her arm, but quickly discarded it. She wasn't sure how well he'd take that. Instead she remembered something she'd said as a sleep deprived joke, but looking back, was completely accurate.

"Brother, I guess," she admitted, having not said that seriously to anyone. "I know some people think something else," as she continued to talk, the bolder she got, even if she didn't look at Markus. "We bicker, we mess around, we look after each other. Him more than me, I know I'm a mess, but I help him where I can."

Markus nodded. "I'm curious, how did you hurt your shoulder?"

"Bullet," she responded simply. She didn't really want to think about it, that night was holding sway in her nightmares.

"Meant for you?"

Megan shook her head, voice retreating. "Paul."

"You took the bullet for him?"

She nodded. "I know it wasn't the smartest thing to do. But, I just saw him, and..." Megan trailed off, unable to describe the maelstrom of emotions that had torn through her at that exact moment.

"You felt like you had to act," Markus filled in, and Megan nodded.

"Yeah."

"Final question, I promise," Markus smiled a little, although he wasn't sure if Megan noticed. "How would you feel about Paul coming to live with us, here. With Jericho?"

Megan's stomach dropped as she considered life without him. Only now did she realise how dependant she was on him being there, on him reliably being around when she needed him. The thought of him gone hurt like a physical blow and tears began to prickle at her eyes. Yet...

Yet if he wanted to, who was she to make him stay?

"It, it's his decision to make," she finally said.

"But how would you feel?"

She didn't want to think about it anymore. If she did she might burst into tears.

"It would hurt," she said, and cringed when she found that she could clearly hear the unshed tears in her voice.

 **Stupid. Weak**

"It would hurt," she stated again, "but it's still his choice. Not mine."

 **Tch. Paul wants to live with other androids and you can't be happy for him? What kind of friend are you?**

Megan sniffed hard, holding back the damn. She would not cry. She would not cry.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry," Markus sounded alarmed, not expecting this turn. Megan half laughed, some of the damn breaking, but still holding together.

"It doesn't take a lot," she managed to fix a watery smile on her face, forcing herself to look at him. "It's okay."

 _It's not okay it's not okay._

"That's everything I had," Markus admitted. "I'll see you out."

Megan got out of her seat and Markus went to the door with her. Paul had calmed down by this point, but looked alarmed by Megan's state. He was instantly over with his arm around her shoulders, being careful with the left one.

"I've got you. You're okay," he murmured just loud enough for her to hear. The damn broke and Megan pressed her face against him, ears going red in embarrassment. Of course she had to do this in front of everyone!

Markus still looked alarmed at Megan's reaction, but addressed the rest of the group calmly.

"Thank you for coming today. I look forward to working with you," he shot a leader's smile at Alex. "You're welcome back any time you wish. Alex and I will discuss some things further at a later time, but otherwise I wish you a safe journey home. Connor, will you be staying?"

"Lieutenant Anderson and I agreed to meet after this," Connor informed, looking a little sheepish. "So I will be joining everyone on the train."

"Alright," Markus had a slightly warmer smile now, "Safe trip."

With that they all felt officially dismissed, and Android Allies plus Connor walked down the stairs and back through the warehouse.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Paul asked Megan, and she shook her head, having peeled herself away to walk down the stairs.

"Not here."

The rest of the humans in the group discussed what just happened, while Megan and Paul barely said anything. Megan stuck close to Paul, thinking about how much it had hurt to consider him gone.

She didn't mention it until they had left the warehouse.

"Do you want to live with them? In Jericho?" she asked, and Paul looked down in shock.

"What? No!" Paul was startled, and angry. Was this what had her so upset? Had Markus suggested this? "I'm not going anywhere! Good luck getting rid of me!"

Megan chuckled with little humour. "You don't have to stay with me."

"We've been over this," Paul responded patiently. "I know I don't have to, but I want to."

"You're not just saying that?"

"No, I mean it. If that ever starts to change, you will be the first to know."

"...Thanks. I know I've asked before, you'd think I'd remember..."

"Don't do that," Paul interjected. "Don't start putting yourself down. You needed reassurance, I'm assuming after something Markus said, and I gave it. And I will continue to do so, because I care about you."

"I still don't understand why you do."

"Just trust me on that one. I do. So does Alex, Allison, Julia, Ivy, Maggie, Lucas, Oscar and Nathan. Don't listen to that voice your head. It's never accurate."

Megan chuckled, "Thanks."

"No problem."

Just ahead of them Allison, Ivy and Alex were muttering.

"I'm telling you it's Queer platonic!"

"What's Queer about it? Besides, clearly familial platonic."

"Does there have to be a label? They're just really close."

"You guys better not be shipping!" Julia hissed.

"Oh, we are," Alex smirked. "And making bets."

Julia sighed a long suffering sigh and she considered shaking some sense into her long time friend. "Do not make me knock your heads together. They're real people!"

"You can ship real people!" Alex defended. "Besides, it's all in good fun."

Connor made no comment, but everyone could see his LED circling as he tried to work out what the hell they were talking about.

"If you guys could not ship when we're having a serious conversation," Paul spoke to them dryly, and Alex turned to look at them, walking backwards.

"But that's when you're the most adorable!"

Megan looked at Paul. "Dog pile?"

"There's only two of us, and you're injured."

"You bring them down and I'll sit on their head."

"Done."

"Guys?" Alex asked nervously as Megan and Paul looked at them. "Guys!" Alex shrieked as the two suddenly charged for them. They ducked in front of Connor as the rest of the group burst out laughing.

"C'mon! We're not kids!" Alex protested, managing to dodge Paul, for now.

"Maybe if you didn't ship so much!" Megan laughed, feeling her mood lift.

"Okay, I'll tone it down!" they promised as Paul picked them up and trapped them in a bear hug. "I promise!"

"Do you?" Megan asked, smirking.

"Yes! Now put me down!"

"I don't know," Paul thought. "Do you still want to sit on their head?"

"Nah, it doesn't look comfy," Megan back tracked, never actually meaning to go through with it. "Do you want to?"

"I think I'll pass," Paul put Alex down and the older student brushed themselves down.

"Okay okay, I'll try not to ship so much," they rolled their eyes. "But you two have to tone down your adorableness!"

"No such promises can be made," Paul responded, and Alex sighed.

"Fine fine, but you two don't make it easy!"

"Shame," Julia shook her head, "As the appointed leader of a recognised Pro android group, you should have more self control," Julia smirked and ducked as Alex went to smack her on the back of the head, and she quickly responded in kind.

"How did we fall in with this lot?" Paul asked, half serious.

"My fault mostly," Megan admitted. "Let's just go home. With as much of our dignity intact as possible."

"Agreed."

* * *

We're almost done. Also, Happy New Years Eve, at least, it is for me! Still in New Zealand so it'll be just past 4PM when I post this for me, 3AM for my normal time zone, and who knows for the rest of them.

Now, to defend Markus here, he was just trying to make sure that Paul wasn't being pressured into lying. It's obvious that Megan has anxiety, ergo most likely a terrible liar and the lie was centered around her. So, yeah. He didn't such a strong reaction, but that's how it is.

Other than that, not much to say. I'll give my full thoughts in the epilogue.

Other Options Flowchart

(Megan) Be sarcastic

(Paul) Confront Markus about Megan.

(Megan) Don't ask. Be vague while asking.


	44. Epilogue

Hey Again, fair enough, I can guess what that's like though, I landed in Adelaide today and it's been 41 Celsius (105F) all day!

Also, long A/N at the end, but will have some important info, please read.

* * *

 **11AM Monday 22** **nd** **November 2038**

"This is insane," Megan looked at the crowd of people. Alex had put the protest on social media, and it had exploded.

Thousands of people were crammed into a few wide streets in Washington. Most were bearing signs, either cardboard or electric. Some had banners and others even had megaphones.

The crowd was mostly human, but androids who had managed to avoid the massacre were in the crowd. Hats covering their LEDs just in case, but Paul pointed them out with ease.

The three main chapters of Android Allies were here, with the leaders all where Megan was standing. That included everyone in the Detroit Chapter, Lucas's sister and her group, and Megan's brother James.

Hank Anderson was also there, although no one could explain why. Not even him, but here he was, grumbling like an old man.

Alex grinned broadly as Megan spoke. "You're not kidding!" was it her, or was their smile strained? "We'll easily counter the anti android protest!"

"We'll certainly be able to drown them out," Megan agreed, looking around again. The march hadn't started yet, so the leaders were standing on some steps to get a feel for who was there. In the distance it looked like someone had brought a freaking marching band!

Someone clapped her hard on the back and she stumbled for a second. She wasn't worried though, only one person announced themselves like that.

"James! I am not one of your football buddies!" Megan protested loudly. She was still wearing the sling, and she hoped that her brother had spotted that.

"I know you're tougher than you look," she could hear the smug grin in his voice. They had the same colour hair, but that was where all similarities ended; while she was short and skinny, he was tall and broad. However, he wasn't as large as Oscar. Megan suspected they played different positions in football, but what those positions were she had no idea.

"Yes, but I still have a hole in my shoulder," she reminded him. "And I'd like to keep the stitches as they are."

"I'm guessing you haven't told mom and dad about that?"

"No, and you won't either."

"Gotcha."

"Why won't you be telling your parents?" Paul asked, having watched the exchange between the two blood siblings.

"Because they'll fuss and demand I come home, again," Megan sighed. "I'll probably have to go home for Christmas, and make sure I book a flight back so that they can't keep me at home."

"They would do that?"

"Oh, they'd try," Megan assured.

"You can come for Christmas with me and my folks," Alex offered, overhearing.

"That's, a lovely offer, thank you," Megan was uncomfortable now, looking at her shuffling feet.

"It's cool, my parents always cook loads anyway," Alex easily shrugged it off. They then checked their watch. "We'll have to put Christmas plans aside. It's time to get going!"

They grabbed a megaphone from next to them and brought it to their lips. There was a loud squeal of feedback which managed to catch everyone's attention.

"Alright people! We're about to move out!" Alex announced. "I will be at the front with the rest of the Detroit chapter, all of whom you should know by now. Hopefully enough of you have the route to hand in case anyone gets lost. And remember! We're here to protest peacefully! If the other protest starts something, that does not mean we can retaliate in kind! Leave the confrontation to Nathan and the marching band!"

There was some laughing at that, but that was the actual plan.

"Who the fuck hired a marching band?" Hank asked, more to himself.

"I did," responded Nathan, like it was obvious.

"Of course."

"Finally, we're all friends here! There's enough water and snacks to hopefully keep everyone going. If someone's struggling, stop and help! We're here to show the best of humanity and that we can live with androids. Most importantly, have fun!"

There was a cheer as Alex put down the megaphone. On their face was an odd expression. Nervousness.

Julia was quick to put a hand on their shoulder as the rest of the chapters took their place in the crowd. "You'll be great," she reassured, and Alex nodded.

"Thanks Jules," they swallowed. "I never, seriously thought, that it would get this big."

"This is your baby," Megan added with a lopsided shrug. "Be proud of it,"

Alex nodded again. "I am. Let's take our places."

The Detroit chapter made their way to the front of the crowd. Without having to say anything Paul put Megan on his shoulders. Megan could almost hear James huffing in annoyance, but too bad, James had never done it when he had the chance.

She held a sign in one hand, with Paul holding the massive banner in front of them along with the rest of the Detroit chapter. On it the name 'Android Allies' was emblazoned in blue with Markus's stick figure/peace sign, the CyberLife triangle and the initials 'AA' in various colours on the white background.

Alex stood in front of all them, holding a megaphone. Usually Allison or Ivy would be standing with them, but they all recognised this as their brainchild. They deserved the credit for this.

"What do we want?!" they bellowed into a megaphone, and the crowd chanted back.

"Android rights!"

"When do we want it?!"

"Now!"

The crowd, several thousand strong, began to march through Washington. Alex kept up their chant, while at the back different chants were popping up.

"Androids Are Alive!"

"Equal right for androids!"

"The tin man has his heart!"

That one threw Megan off, but it made some sense. The tin man went with Dorothy looking for a heart, but it turned out that he had it the entire time. Oddly fitting.

Paul never faltered in his pace as he walked. Even when James forced himself to the front to offer to give him a break.

"I'm fine James," he assured. "Perhaps we should talk later, over a coffee or something?"

"Can you drink?"

"No, but the offer still stands."

James looked at him oddly for a second before nodding. "Sure, okay. I'd like that."

"I'll leave you two to your budding bromance then," Megan smirked. "Finally, Alex will have another ship!"

"I've just met him!" James protested.

"I'm messing with you!" Megan laughed. "But seriously, I'll leave you two to talk it out. I'll probably hang around Alex or something. We're in DC for a few days after all."

"Sure, whatever," James huffed before chanting again.

Megan looked around at the crowd, and felt a surge of pride. She had contributed to this. She had helped make this happen. Now, there was a partnership with Markus, the government was starting to listen, people were starting to change.

It wasn't over, and of course this wasn't solely down to them. Most of this was down to Markus and his revolution. But one week won't change a country, won't change laws. Markus had laid the groundwork, Android Allies had been on the sidelines, helping with the public opinion and both efforts had lead to this.

This wasn't over, but it was another step in the right direction. They intended to keep walking.

* * *

Yeah, this is it. The epilogue. This has been a wild ride from start to finish, in a genre I never really tried before. I tried a few new things with this, the slice of life opening, the flowchart things at the end and the connection between Paul and Megan.

I deliberately did it like that, and it was surprisingly easy. I did have to watch myself a couple of times to stop it going romantic, but overall, not as hard as I thought it would be. I just had to think of fluff for them.

This has also been my most popular story on this site, seriously! As of typing the stats are; 45 followers, 35 favourites, 24 reviews, and 11, 207 views. For a story this long, this is insane. I've never had a story be this popular, so, thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for sticking with this.

In the chapter itself. I understand why it might seem a little out of left field that Alex has the glory moment at the end, but Android Allies is their brain child. It always was, Megan and Paul just got caught up in it, and yeah had the most to lose or gain, but this is still Alex's group, their idea, their baby. We also finally meet James, I know his mental health side story never really went anywhere, it was more to showcase that any can suffer from mental illness, especially the people we least expect.

A few reasons why I wrote this story. One, was because of some complainants I saw on tumblr about the main game, primarly, where are the human pro android supporters. The game says they exist, but we never see them. Here we go, I made some!

I also did this, a little out of spite. I am incredibly sick of seeing stories, original and fanfic, where there's two leads of different genders and they end up in a romantic relationship. I hate it, despise it. It's not necessary and it pops up all the damn time, heck _I'm_ guilty of it! So, I wrote Megan and Paul, and made them deliberately adorable just to piss off anyone who thinks that they'd make a good romantic couple. Which, actually, even if Megan wasn't Ace/Aro they wouldn't be a good romantic couple, I don't that would be healthy.

I'm not quite done with this yet. I've got a list of the alternative endings and how to get them almost ready, with some 'post credit scenes' for them. There is also a completely different ending. You know how in the main game you can have Deviant/Machine, Pacifist/Revolution and Canada/Camp. Well, there is an alternate ending for this as well, where Paul gets arrested and sent to one of these Recycling Camps.

It's not finished. Not yet, and given that I'm on holiday right now and will be for another three weeks, I can't guarantee when it will be up. I'll get the alternate endings list up some time next week, but other than that I make no promises.

I think that's all I had, and no flowchart this time. It's the ending cutscene, there is nothing left to influence.


	45. Alternative Routes

So... I said this was going to be coming out a week after the ending of GWINAR, didn't I? Yeah... Well...

Okay, during that week I had no internet for a start, and when I did have internet we were in Tokyo and seeing so much stuff and really only just having enough time to keep up YouTube, tumblr and DA before crashing for the night. The last few weeks? I've been diving head first into an unrelated AU project on tumblr, which has kept well and truly distracted.

But, here we go, alternate routes the story could have gone.

* * *

 **Megan Arrested Ending Overview** -

Can occur on the way to Alex's (Ch28),

If Megan reacts violently to Paul being arrested in Ch25,

If they remain in the apartment in Ch28 (would lead to Paul Dead by Recycling Centre)

Or if spotted/unable to get away in Ch28

Or if dialogue options/QTEs are failed in Ch31.

In any scenario she does not get released until the end of the game. Questioning scene? If arrested POV would stay with Paul, but switch to Allison if Paul dies.

Most likely met by parents primarily if bond bail is used. If released because of bigger fish then Android Allies/Paul would meet her

 **Paul Dead Ending Overview** -

Multiple Variations Ch25 if Paul runs or reacts violently.

Ch28 if QTEs/dialogue trees failed Paul would be shot.

Ch35 Military in basement-if Paul doesn't stay still and Megan fails QTEs.

Note. If Megan is arrested and Paul is alive in the basement, Ivy will attack the solider from behind and save him, temporary control over Ivy?

Paul dead and Megan not arrested-mourn but carry on-could lead to **Repaired Ending**

 **Variation of Paul Dead Ending**

 _Recycling Centre ending_ -pushes guards too much, Megan fails QTEs. If Megan is arrested Android Allies investigate (Alex tells them what happened and the Paul is an android)and might be able to rescue him depending on how fast they are. Paul dead if QTEs/prompt trees fail.

 **Megan arrested knowing Paul is dead (notes)**

No response. To anything. Not even game input commands. She just sits on the bench and stares at nothing. Released-need cell space/bail paid/evacuation order, still non responsive. Possible suicide ending if relationship with Paul is high enough.

 **Paul dies after Megan is arrested (Notes)**

Game ends on her release. Depending on timing of arrest might see Alex being brought in and shit going down at the precinct. Depending on time of arrest will be questioned. Upon release won't believe he is dead until she sees him. Depending on relationship might lead to a Suicide Ending.

 **Paul alive and Megan arrested (Notes)**

He meets her at the end of the game upon release. Game play shifts to him when Megan is arrested. May be some game play with Megan depending on when she was arrested.

 **Suicide Endings** -

Megan in Ch7 if Relationship with Paul is at its lowest.

If Paul is dead before or while Megan is Arrested (depends on relationship level)

 **Repair Ending** \- Can only happen if Paul dies in Alex's basement (need the body), Megan is not arrested and she and Oscar hide in Hank's house (if Megan is arrested Oscar will join another group and will not have the option to go to Hank's).

 **Recycling Plant Ending (Notes)**

Other main ending

Would occur if evidence is not properly hidden in Chapter 25 and Paul does not react violently or run.

Or if they remain in the apartment in Chapter 28 (Megan would be arrested, leading to a Paul Dead/Megan Arrested Ending)

Being written.

* * *

Good grief I make it hard for these two to be happy.

And, what's this? The main alternate path is being written? Yes, yes it is. It is not finished, and I can give no date on when it will be finished, just know that a good two thirds of it exists. The last third, no one knows! I don't know, you don't know, no one knows!

I also don't know if I'll make a separate fic for this. I will post an update here once I decide, and once it's finished

Oh, and it's also Valentine's Day. In the spirit of Megan and Paul's relationship, I shall take it upon myself to remind you that love outside romance and lust exists. Love for your friends, family, even your environment, let's not forget them today.

Have a good one.

Shapeshifter out


	46. Announcement

So, do you remember those alternative route ideas way back about six months ago? The main other route is ready to go. It'll be in a new story called 'Guess What? I'm Not a Robot Alternate Routes'


End file.
